No, 


IMPRESSIONS  OF 
SOUTH  AFRICA 


IMPRESSIONS  OF 
SOUTH  AFRICA 


BY 


JAMES  BRYCE 

AT3THOK  OF  "THE  AMERICAN  COMMONWEALTH,"  "TRANSCAUCASIA 
AND  AEARAT,"  "THE  HOLT  ROMAN  EMPIRE" 


NEW  YORK 
THE  CENTURY  CO. 
1897 


Copyright,  1897, 
By  The  CmmTBT  Co. 


The  De  Vinne  Press. 


TO 

THE  COMPANION  OF  MY  TRAVELS 


PEEFACE 


S  I  have  explained  in  the  introductory  chapter  the 


Jl\.  scope  and  plan  of  this  volume,  I  need  do  no  more 
here  than  acknowledge  the  assistance  which  I  have  derived 
in  the  historical  part  of  it  from  the  treatises  of  Mr.  Theal, 
a  diligent  and  careful  writer  who  has  done  much  for  the 
annals  of  his  adopted  country.  I  have  also  been  aided  by 
the  interesting  lectures  on  the  emigrant  Boers  in  Natal  of 
the  late  Mr.  Cloete,  and  have  found  valuable  suggestions 
in  the  judicious  and  lucid  "  Historical  Geography  of  the 
British  Colonies"  (vol.  iv.)  of  Mr.  C.  P.  Lucas.  No  spe- 
cial reference  seems  needed  to  the  other  books  I  have  con- 
sulted, except  to  Mr.  Noble's  very  well  executed  "  Official 
Handbook  of  the  Cape  and  South  Africa." 

I  have  to  thank  Sir  Donald  Currie  and  the  Castle  MaU 
Packets  Company  for  the  permission  kindly  given  me  to 
use  the  maps  in  the  excellent  "  Guide  to  South  Africa," 
published  by  them,  in  the  preparation  of  the  three  maps 
contained  in  this  volume ;  and  I  trust  that  these  maps  wiU 
be  helpful  to  the  reader,  because  a  comprehension  of  the 
physical  geography  of  the  country  is  essential  to  a  com- 
prehension of  its  history. 

The  friends  in  South  Africa  to  whom  I  am  indebted  for 
many  of  the  facts  I  have  stated  and  views  I  have  expressed 


Vll 


viii 


PREFACE 


are  too  numerous  to  mention ;  but  I  cannot  deny  myself 
the  pleasure  of  returning  thanks  for  the  genial  hospitality 
and  unfaUing  kindness  which  I  received  in  every  part  of 
the  country. 

As  I  have  been  obliged  to  correct  the  proofs  of  this  book 
at  a  distance  from  aU  books  of  reference,  I  ask  indulgence 
for  any  minor  errors  which  may  be  discovered  in  it. 

James  Bryce. 

Beverly  Farms,  Massachusetts, 
September  13,  1897. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION 

PART  I-NATURE 
Chapter  I 


PHYSICAL  FEATURES 

PAGE 

The  Coast  Strip  and  the  Great  Plateau  ....  2 

Mountain-ranges      .      .•  4 

Climate  6 

The  Absence  of  Rivers  7 

Chapter  II 
HEALTH 

Temperature  10 

Dryness  of  the  Air  12 

Malarial  Fevers  13 

Chapter  III 

WILD  ANIMALS  AND  THEIR  FATE 

Original  Abundance  of  Wild  Creatures  .  .  .  .16 
Their  Extinction  :  the  Lion  and  the  Leopard  .  .  .17 
The  Elephant  and  the  Rhinoceros  ;  Antelopes  .      .  .19 

Recent  Attempts  at  Protection  21 

ix 


X 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


Chapter  IV 
VEGETATION 

PAGE 


Chabacter  of  the  South  African  Flora    .      .      .  .23 

Native  and  Imported  Trees  25 

Changes  Made  by  Man  in  the  Landscape    .      ...  30 

Chapter  V 

PHYSICAL  ASPECTS  OF  THE  VAEIOUS  POLITICAL 
DI^^SIONS 

Cape  Colony  32 

Natal  35 

German  and  Portuguese  Africa  36 

The  Orange  Free  State  and  the  South  African  Republic  37 
Bechuanaland  and  the  Territories  of  the  British  South 
Africa  Company  39 

Chapter  Vl 
NATURE  AND  HISTORY 

Influence  of  Physical  Conditions  on  the  Savage  Races  .  43 
The  Slow  Progress  of  Early  European  Settlement  .  44 
Later  Explorations  along  the  Temperate  Plateau  .      .  47 

Chapter  VH 

ASPECTS  OF  SCENERY 

Dryness  and  Monotony  of  South  African  Landscape      .  49 

Striking  Pieces  of  Scenery:  Basutoland,  Manicaland     .  50 

Peculiar  Charms  of  South  Africa  :  Color  and  Solitude  .  53 

Influence  of  Scenery  on  Character   56 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  xi 

PART  II-HISTORY 
Chapter  VIII 

THE  NATIVES:  HOTTENTOTS,  BUSHMEN,  AND  KAFIRS 

PAGE 

The  Aborigines:  Bushmen  and  Hottentots  .  .  .60 
The  Bantu  or  Kafir  Tribes  64 

Chapter  IX 

OUT  OF  THE  DARKNESS- ZIMBAB WYE 

Ancient  Walls  in  Matabililand  and  Mashonaland  .       .  68 

Dhlodhlo  :  Chipadzi's  Grave   69 

The  Great  Zimbabwye   74 

Theories  as  to  the  Builders  of  the  Ancient  Walls      .  77 

The  Ancient  Gold-workings    ....  .      .  79 

Chapter  X 

THE  KAFIRS:  THEIR  HISTORY  AND  INSTITUTIONS 

The  Kafirs  before  their  Struggles  with  the  Europeans  82 

Careers  of  Dingiswayo  and  Tshaka   83 

Results  op  the  Zulu  Conquests   84 

Kafir  Institutions   86 

War  and  Religion   89 

Sorcery   93 

Stagnation  and  Cruelty  of  Primitive  Kafir  Life    .      .  95 

Chapter  XI 

THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA  TILL  1854 

The  Portuguese  at  Sofala  99 

The  Dutch  at  the  Cape:  The  French  Huguenots  .  .103 
Africander  Type  of  Life  and  Character    ....  105 


xii  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The  Dutch  Company:  Disaffection  of  the  Settlers       .  108 

British  Occupation  op  the  Cape  110 

Features  op  British  Administration  112 

Boer  Discontent  and  its  Causes  113 

The  Great  Trek  of  1836    116 

Adventures  of  the  Emigrant  Boers  119 

The  Emigrant  Boers  in  Natal  121 

British  Occupation  of  Natal  123 

The  Boers  in  the  Interior:  Beginnings  of  Republican 

Government  127 

British  Advance  :  the  Orange  River  Sovereignty  .  .  130 
The  Sand  River  Convention  op  1852 :  Independence  of 

THE  Transvaal  Boers  132 

The  Bloemfontein  Convention  of  1854 :  Independence  of 

THE  Orange  Free  State  134 

Chapter  xn 

THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA,  1854-95 

Progress  of  Cape  Colony  137 

Grant  of  Responsible  Government  in  1872  ....  142 
Kafir  Wars  :  Causes  of  their  Frequent  Recurrence  .  143 
Renewed  British  Advance  :  Basutoland      ....  146 

The  Delagoa  Bay  Arbitration  150 

First  Scheme  of  South  African  Confederation       .      .  151 

The  Zulu  War  of  1879    153 

Formation  op  the  Transvaal  Republic       ....  155 

Annexation  of  the  Transvaal  157 

Revolt  of  the  Transvaal  :  its  Independence  Restored  .  163 

Boers  and  English  in  Bechuanaland  139 

Conventions  of  1884  and  1894 :  Swaziland  Conceded  .       .  170 

German  Occupation  of  Damaraland  173 

The  British  South  Africa  Company:  Acquisition  op  Ma- 

SHONALAND  AND  MaTABILILAND  175 

Recent  History  op  the  Transvaal  :  the  Rising  op  1895  .  179 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


xiii 


PART  III- A  JOURNEY  THROUGH  SOUTH  AFRICA 

Chapter  XIII 
TRAVELING  AND  COMMUNICATIONS 

PAGE 


Communications  along  the  Coast  183 

Lines  op  Railroad  184 

Traveling  by  Ox-wagon  186 

Chapter  XIV 

FROM  CAPE  TOWN  TO  BULAWAYO 

Cape  Town  and  its  Environs  195 

The  Journey  Inland  :  Scenery  op  the  Karroo  .      .      .  199 

Kimberley  and  its  Diamond-fields  201 

Northward  through  Bechuanaland  207 

Khama:  his  Town  and  his  People  214 

Mangwe  and  the  Matoppo  Hills  220 

Chapter  XV 

FROM  BULAWAYO  TO  FORT  SALISBURY-MATA- 
bililand  and  MASHONALAND 

BuLAWAYO  AND  Lo  Bengula   223 

The  Natives:  Causes  op  the  Rising  op  1896       .      .      .  226 

The  Native  Labor  Question   231 

Dhlodhlo  :  Scenery  op  the  Hill-country   ....  234 

GrWELO  and  THE  TRACK  TO  FORT  VICTORIA      ....  240 

Ruins  of  Great  Zimbabwye  244 

^ORT  Salisbury  248 

Chapter  XVI 

FROM  FORT  SALISBURY  TO  THE  SEA-MANICALAND 
AND  THE  PORTUGUESE  TERRITORIES 

Scenery  op  Eastern  Mashonaland  251 

Antiquities  at  the  Lezapi  River  255 


xiv  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Among  the  Mountains  :  Falls  op  the  Oudzi  .  .  .  259 
Manicaland  and  the  Portuguese  Border    ....  261 

Chimoyo  and  the  Eastern  Slope  267 

Descent  of  the  Pungwe  River  to  Beira     ....  272 


Chapter  XVH 

OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  RESOURCES  AND  FUTURE  OF 
MATABILILAND  AND  MASHONALAND 

General  Features  of  the  British  South  Africa  Company's 


Territories  279 

Health,  Wealth,  and  Peace  281 

Results  of  British  Extension  in  the  North     .      .      .  289 

Chapter  XVni 

THROUGH  NATAL  TO  THE  TRANSVAAL 

Delagoa  Bay  291 

Durban  and  Pietermaritzburg  292 

Government  and  Politics  of  Natal  295 

Laing's  Nek  and  Majuba  Hill  302 

The  "Witwatersrand  and  its  Gold-fields  ....  307 
Johannesburg  and  Pretoria  319 

Chapter  XIX 
THE  ORANGE  FREE  STATE 

Bloemfontein  325 

Constitution  and  Politics  of  the  Free  State    .      .      .  327 

Chapter  XX 

BASUTOLAND:  THE  SV51TZERLANT)  OP  SOUTH  AFRICA 

Across  the  Free  State  to  the  Caledon  River  .  .  .  331 
The  Missionaries  and  the  Chiefs:  Lerothodi     .      .      .  334 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  xv 

PAGE 

The  Ascent  of  Mount  Machacha  338 

Thaba  Bosiyo  and  its  History  343 

Condition  and  Pkospects  op  the  Basuto  Nation      .      .  350 


PART  IV-SOME  SOUTH  AFRICAN  QUESTIONS 

Chapter  XXI 
BLACKS  AND  WHITES 


The  Non-tribal  Colored  People  361 

Attitude  op  the  Whites  to  the  Natives  ....  365 
Treatment  op  the  Natives:  Legislation  Affecting  Them  367 

The  Tribal  KLapirs  375 

Probable  Future  op  the  Natives  380 

Chapter  XXII 
MISSIONS 

Want  op  Religious  Ideas  among  the  Kafirs      .      .      .  384 

Results  of  Missionary  Effort  386 

Polygamy  389 

Attitude  of  the  Colonists  toward  Missions      ,      .      .  391 

Chapter  XXIII 

SOCIAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  TWO  BRITISH 
COLONIES 

The  Dutch  and  the  English:  the  Dutch  Language  .      .  394 

Placidity  op  South  African  Life  398 

Literature,  Journalism,  Education  402 

The  Churches  404 

Chapter  XXIV 

POLITICS  IN  THE  TWO  BRITISH  COLONIES 

The  Frame  op  Government  407 

Absence  op  Some  Familiar  Political  Issues  ....  411 


xvi  TABLE  OP  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The  Real  Issues  Turn  on  Race  and  Color  ....  413 
General  Character  of  Cape  Politics  417 

Chapter  XXV 

THE  SITUATION  IN  THE  TRANSVAAL  BEFORE 
THE  RISING  OF  1895 

The  Old  Boers  and  the  New  Immigrants  ....  420 
Constitution  and  Government  op  the  Republic  .  .  .  424 
tjltlander  discontent  :  the  national  union  .  .  .  428 
The  Capitalists:  Preparations  for  a  Revolution     .      .  432 

President  Kruger  and  his  Policy  436 

Prospects  op  the  Movement  :  Causes  op  its  Failure  .      .  441 

Chapter  XXVI 

THE  ECONOMIC  FUTURE  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 

Material  Resources:  Tillage  and  Pasture  ....  448 
Minerals:  the  Gold-fields  and  their  Duration       .      .  454 

Will  Manufactures  be  Developed?  460 

South  Africa  as  a  Market  465 

Future  Population:  its  Increase  and  Character     .      .  467 

Chapter  XXVH 
REFLECTIONS  AND  FORECASTS 

Sources  op  the  Troubles  op  South  Africa  .  .  .  471 
The  Friction  op  Dutch  and  English  :  its  Causes  .  .  473 
British  Policy  in  its  Earlier  and  Later  Phases  .  .  477 
Future  Relations  op  the  European  and  Native  Races  .  482 
Adjustment  of  the  Relations  of  Boers  and  Englishmen  .  486 
Prospects  op  South  African  Confederation      .      .      .  489 

South  Africa  and  Britain  494 

Index  497 

SOrographical  ^ 
Political  C      at  the  end  of  the  volume. 

Rainfall  ) 


INTEODUCTION 

IN  the  latter  part  of  the  year  1895  I  traveled  across 
South  Africa  from  Cape  Town  to  Fort  Salisbury  in 
Mashonaland,  passing  through  Bechuanaland  and  Mata- 
biLQand.  From  Fort  Salisbury,  which  is  only  two  hun- 
dred miles  from  the  Zambesi,  I  returned  through  Manica- 
land  and  the  Portuguese  territories  to  Beira  on  the  Indian 
Ocean,  sailed  thence  to  Delagoa  Bay  and  Durban,  traversed 
Natal,  and  visited  the  Transvaal,  the  Orange  Free  State, 
Basutoland,  and  the  eastern  province  of  Cape  Colony. 
The  country  had  long  possessed  a  great  interest  for  me, 
and  that  interest  was  increased  by  studying  on  the  spot 
the  physical  character  and  the  peculiar  economic  and 
industiial  conditions  which  have  made  it  unlike  the  other 
newly  settled  countries  of  the  world.  Seeing  these  things, 
and  talking  with  the  leading  men  in  every  part  of  the 
country,  I  began  to  comprehend  many  things  that  had 
previously  been  obscure  to  me,  and  saw  how  the  polit- 
ical troubles  of  the  land  were  connected  with  the  life 
which  nature  imposed  on  the  people.  Immediately  after 
my  return  to  Europe,  fresh  political  troubles  broke  out, 
and  the  events  occurred  in  the  Transvaal  which  fixed  the 
eyes  of  the  whole  world  upon  South  Africa.  I  had  not 
traveled  with  any  view  to  wi-iting  a  book ;  but  the  interest 

xvii 


xviii 


INTRODUCTION 


which  the  events  just  mentioned  have  aroused,  and  which  is 
likely  to  be  sustained  for  a  good  while  to  come,  leads  me 
to  believe  that  the  impressions  of  a  traveler  who  has  ^dsited 
other  new  countries  may  be  useful  to  those  who  desire  to 
know  what  South  Africa  is  really  Uke,  and  why  it  makes 
a  noise  and  stir  in  the  world  disproportionate  to  its  small 
population. 

In  calling  the  book  "  Impressions  "  I  mean  to  disclaim 
any  intention  to  present  a  complete  and  minute  account  of 
the  country.  To  do  that  would  require  a  long  residence 
and  a  large  volume.  It  is  only  the  salient  features  that  I 
wish  to  describe.  These,  after  aU,  are  what  most  readers 
desire  to  know.  These  are  what  the  traveler  of  a  few 
weeks  or  months  can  give,  and  can  give  all  the  better  be- 
cause the  details  have  not  become  so  familiar  to  bim  as  to 
obscure  the  broad  outlines. 

Instead  of  giving  a  simple  narrative  of  my  journey,  and 
weaving  into  it  observations  on  the  country  and  people,  I 
have  tried  to  arrange  the  materials  collected  in  a  way  bet- 
ter fitted  to  give  to  the  reader  in  their  natural  connection 
the  things  he  will  desire  to  have.  Those  things  would 
seem  to  be  the  following:  (1)  the  physical  character  of 
the  country,  and  the  aspects  of  its  scenery ;  (2)  the  char- 
acteristics of  the  native  races  that  inhabit  it ;  (3)  the  his- 
tory of  the  natives  and  of  the  European  settlers,  that  is  to 
say,  the  chief  events  which  have  made  the  people  what 
they  now  are ;  (4)  the  present  condition  of  different  parts 
of  the  country,  and  the  sort  of  life  men  lead  in  it ;  (5)  the 
economic  resources  of  the  countiy,  and  the  main  features 
of  its  society  and  its  politics. 

These  I  have  tried  to  present  in  the  order  above  indi- 
cated. The  first  seven  chapters  contain  a  very  brief  ac- 
count of  the  physical  structure  and  climate,  since  these 


INTEODUCTION 


xix 


are  the  conditions  wliicli  have  chiefly  determined  the 
economic  progress  of  the  country  and  the  lines  of  Euro- 
pean migration,  together  with  remarks  on  the  wild  ani- 
mals, the  vegetation,  and  the  scenery.  Next  follows  a 
sketch  of  the  three  aboriginal  races,  and  an  outline  of  the 
history  of  the  whites  since  their  fii-st  arrival,  four  centu- 
ries ago.  The  eai'lier  events  are  lightly  touched  on,  while 
those  which  have  brought  about  the  present  political  situa- 
tion are  more  fully  related.  In  the  third  part  of  the  book 
I  have  asked  the  reader  to  accompany  me  on  the  long 
journey  from  Cape  Town  to  the  Zambesi  Valley  and  back 
again,  giving  in  four  chapters  a  description  of  the  far  inte- 
rior as  one  sees  it  passing  from  barbarism  to  civilization 
—its  scenery,  the  prospects  of  its  material  development, 
the  life  which  its  new  settlers  lead.  These  regions,  being 
the  part  of  the  country  most  lately  brought  under  Euro- 
pean administration,  seem  to  deserve  a  fuller  description 
than  the  older  and  better-known  regions.  Three  other 
chapters  give  a  more  summary  account  of  Natal,  of 
the  Transvaal  gold-fields,  of  that  model  republic,  the 
Orange  Free  State,  and  of  Basutoland,  a  native  state 
under  British  protection  which  possesses  many  features 
of  peculiar  interest.  In  the  fourth  and  last  division  of 
the  book  several  questions  of  a  more  general  character  are 
discussed  which  could  not  conveniently  be  brought  into 
either  the  historical  or  the  descriptive  parts.  I  have  se- 
lected for  treatment  those  topics  which  are  of  most  per- 
manent importance  and  as  to  which  the  reader  is  most 
likely  to  be  curious.  Among  them  are  the  condition  of 
the  natives,  and  their  relations  to  the  white  people ;  the 
aspects  of  social  and  political  life ;  the  situation  of  affairs 
in  the  Transvaal  in  1895,  and  the  causes  which  brought 
about  the  Reform  rising  and  the  expedition  of  Dr.  Jame- 


XX 


INTRODUCTION 


son;  and  finally,  the  economic  prospects  of  the  country, 
and  the  poUtical  future  of  its  colonies  and  republics. 

In  these  concluding  chapters,  as  well  as  in  the  historical 
sketch,  my  aim  has  been  to  set  forth  facts  rather  than  to 
pass  judgments  upon  the  character  and  conduct  of  indi- 
viduals. Whoever  desires  to  help  others  to  a  fair  view  of 
current  events  must  not  only  try  to  be  impartial,  but 
must  also  try  to  avoid  all  that  may  expose  his  impartiality 
to  suspicion ;  and  where  the  events  to  be  described  are 
the  theme  of  heated  controversy,  no  judgment  passed  on 
individual  actors  could  fail  to  be  deemed  partial  by  one 
set  of  partizans  or  by  the  other.  I  have  sought  to  write 
what  those  who  desire  to  understand  the  country  may 
find  useful  even  after  the  next  two  or  three  years  have 
passed,  feeling  sure  that  the  present  problems  wUl  take 
some  time  to  solve.  And,  so  far  from  wishing  to  champion 
any  view  or  to  throw^any  fresh  logs  on  the  fire  of  contro- 
versy that  has  been  blazing  for  the  last  two  years,  I  am 
convinced  that  the  thing  now  most  needed  in  the  interests 
of  South  Africa  is  to  let  controversies  die  out,  to  endeavor 
to  forget  the  causes  of  irritation,  and  to  look  at  the  actual 
facts  of  the  case  in  a  purely  practical  spirit. 

Altogether  apart  from  its  recent  troubles,  South  Africa 
is  a  most  curious,  and  indeed  fascinating,  subject  of 
study.  There  are,  of  course,  some  things  which  one  can- 
not expect  to  find  in  it.  There  has  not  yet  been  time  to 
evolve  institutions  either  novel  or  specially  instructive, 
nor  to  produce  new  types  of  character  (save  that  of  the 
Transvaal  Boer)  or  new  forms  of  social  life.  There  are  no 
ancient  buildings,  except  a  few  prehistoric  ruins ;  nor  have 
any  schools  of  architecture  or  painting  or  Hterature  been 
developed  as  yet.  But  besides  the  aspects  of  nature,  often 
weird  and  sometimes  beautiful,  there  are  the  savage  races^ 


INTRODUCTION 


whose  usages  and  superstitions  open  a  wide  field  for  re- 
search, and  the  phenomena  of  whose  contact  with  the 
whites  raise  some  grave  and  gloomy  problems.  There  are 
the  relations  of  the  two  European  races— races  which 
ought  long  ago  to  have  been  happily  blended  into  one,  but 
which  have  been  kept  apart  by  a  train  of  untoward  events 
and  administrative  errors.  Few  of  the  newer  countries 
have  had  a  more  curious  and  checkered  history ;  and  this 
history  needs  to  be  studied  with  a  constant  regard  to  the 
physical  conditions  that  molded  it.  Coming  down  to  our 
own  time,  nowhere  are  the  struggles  of  the  past  seen  to  be 
more  closely  intertwined  with  the  troubles  of  the  present ; 
nor  does  even  Irish  history  furnish  a  better  illustration 
of  the  effect  of  sentiment  upon  practical  politics.  Few 
events  of  recent  times  have  presented  more  dramatic  sit- 
uations, and  raised  more  curious  and  intricate  issues  of 
political  and  international  morality,  than  those  which  the 
discovery  of  the  Transvaal  gold-fields  and  the  rush  of 
nineteenth-century  miners  and  speculators  into  a  popula- 
tion of  seventeenth-century  shepherds  have  lately  set  before 
us.  Most  interesting  of  all  are  the  problems  of  the  future. 
It  is  too  soon  to  do  more  than  guess  at  them;  but  the 
world  now  moves  so  fast,  and  has  grown  so  small,  and 
sees  nearly  every  part  of  it  so  closely  bound  by  ties  of 
commerce  or  politics  to  every  other  part,  that  one  cannot 
think  of  any  great  and  new  country  without  seeking  to 
interpret  its  tendencies  hj  the  experience  of  other  coun- 
tries, and  to  conjecture  the  role  it  wiU  be  called  on  to 
play  in  the  world-drama  of  the  future.  I  have  sought, 
therefore,  not  only  to  make  South  Africa  real  to  those 
who  do  not  know  it,  and  to  give  them  the  materials 
for  understanding  what  passes  there  and  following  its 
fortunes  with  intelligence,  but  also  to  convey  an  impres- 


xxii 


INTRODUCTION 


sion  of  the  kind  of  interest  it  awakens.  One  sees  still  in 
its  fluid  state  the  substance  that  will  soon  crystallize  into 
new  forms.  One  speculates  on  the  result  which  all  these 
mingled  forces,  these  ethnic  habits  and  historical  traditions 
and  economic  conditions,  wiU  work  out.  And  reflecting 
on  all  these  things,  one  feels  sure  that  a  countrj'  so  pecu- 
liar, which  has  compressed  so  much  history  into  the  last 
eighty  years  of  its  life,  will  hold  a  conspicuous  place  in 
that  southern  hemisphere  which  has  in  oui*  own  times  en- 
tered into  the  life  of  the  civilized  world. 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


CHAPTER  I 
PHYSICAL  FEATUEES 

TO  understand  the  material  resources  and  economic 
conditions  of  South  Africa,  and,  indeed,  to  under- 
stand the  history  of  the  country  and  the  political  prob- 
lems which  it  now  presents,  one  must  first  know  something 
of  its  physical  structure.  The  subject  may  seem  dry,  and 
those  readers  who  do  not  care  for  it  may  skip  this  chapter. 
But  it  need  not  be  uninteresting,  and  it  is  certainly  not 
uninstructive.  For  myself,  I  can  say  that  not  only  South 
African  history,  but  also  the  prospects  of  South  African 
industry  and  trade,  were  dark  matters  to  me  till  I  had  got, 
by  traveling  through  the  country,  an  idea  of  those  natural 
features  of  the  southern  part  of  the  continent  which  have 
so  largely  governed  the  course  of  events  and  have  stamped 
themselves  so  deeply  upon  the  habits  of  the  people.  Some 
notion  of  these  features  I  must  now  try  to  convey.  Fortu- 
nately, they  are  simple,  for  nature  has  worked  in  Africa, 
as  in  America,  upon  larger  and  broader  lines  than  she  has 
done  in  Europe.  The  reader  will  do  weU  to  keep  a  map 
1  1 


2 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


beside  him,  and  refer  ^  constantly  to  it,  for  descriptions 
wittiout  a  map  avaU  little. 

Afi'ica  south  of  the  Zambesi  River  consists,  speaking 
broadly,  of  thi-ee  regions.  There  is  a  strip  of  lowland 
lying  along  the  coast  of  the  Indian  Ocean,  all  the  way 
round  from  Cape  Town,  past  Durban  and  Delagoa  Bay 
and  Beira,  till  you  reach  the  mouth  of  the  Zambesi.  On 
the  south,  between  Cape  Town  and  Durban,  this  strip  is 
often  very  narrow,  for  in  many  places  the  hills  come,  as 
they  do  at  Cape  Town,  right  down  to  the  sea.  But  beyond 
Durban,  as  one  follows  the  coast  along  to  the  northeast,  the 
level  strip  widens.  At  Delagoa  Bay  it  is  some  fifteen  or 
twenty  miles  wide  ;  at  Beira  it  is  sixty  or  eighty  miles  wide, 
so  that  the  hUls  behind  cannot  be  seen  from  the  coast ;  and 
farther  north  it  is  still  wider.  This  low  strip  is  in  many 
places  wet  and  swampy,  and,  being  swampy,  is  from  Durban 
northward  malarious  and  unhealthful  in  the  highest  de- 
gree. Its  unhealthfulness  is  a  factor  of  prime  importance 
in  what  may  be  called  the  general  scheme  of  the  country, 
and  has  had,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  the  most  important 
historical  consequences. 

Behind  the  low  coast  strip  rise  the  hills  whose  slopes 
constitute  the  second  region.  They  rise  in  most  places 
rather  gradually,  and  they  seldom  (except  in  Manicaland, 
to  be  hereafter  described)  present  striking  forms.  The 
neighborhood  of  Cape  Town  is  almost  the  only  place  where 
high  mountains  come  close  to  the  shore — the  only  place, 
therefore,  except  the  harbor  of  St.  John's,  far  to  the  east, 
where  there  is  am-thing  that  can  be  called  grand  coast 
scenery.  As  one  travels  inland  the  hills  become  constantly 

1  In  particular,  I  will  ask  the  reader  to  refer  to  the  small  maps 
shovring  the  physical  features  of  the  country  which  have  been  in- 
serted in  this  volume. 


PHYSICAL  FEATUEES 


3 


higher,  till  at  a  distance  of  thirty  or  forty  miles  from  the 
sea  they  have  reached  an  average  height  of  from  3000  to 
4000  feet,  at  sixty  mHes  from  5000  to  6000  feet.  These 
hills,  intersected  by  vaUeys  which  grow  naiTower  and  have 
steeper  sides  the  farther  inland  one  goes,  are  the  spurs  or 
outer  decU\-ity  of  a  long  range  of  mountains  which  runs 
all  the  way  from  Cape  Town  to  the  Zambesi  Valley,  a  dis- 
tance of  sixteen  hundred  nules,  and  is  now  usually  called 
by  geographers  (for  it  has  really  no  general  name)  the 
Drakensberg  or  Quathlamba  Range.  Their  height  varies 
from  3000  to  7000  feet,  some  of  the  highest  lying  not  far  to 
the  northeast  of  Cape  Town.  In  one  region,  however,  sev- 
eral summits  reach  to  11,000  feet.  This  is  Basutoland,  the 
countrj'  that  Hes  at  the  corner  where  Cape  Colony,  Natal, 
and  the  Orange  Free  State  meet.  It  is  a  region  remarkable 
in  several  respects,  for  its  scenery  as  well  as  for  its  history, 
and  for  the  condition  of  the  native  race  that  inhabits  it, 
and  I  shall  have  to  give  some  account  of  it  in  a  later  chapter. 
These  mountains  of  Basutoland  are  the  loftiest  in  Africa 
south  of  Kihmandjaro,  and  keep  snow  on  their  tops  for  sev- 
eral months  in  the  year. 

Behind  the  Quathlamba  Range  the  country  spreads  out 
to  the  north  and  west  in  a  vast  table-land,  sometimes  flat, 
sometimes  undulating,  sometimes  intersected  by  ridges  of 
rocky  hills.  This  is  the  third  region.  Its  average  height 
above  the  sea  varies  from  3000  to  5000  feet,  and  the  hills 
reach  in  places  nearly  6000.  Thus  the  Quathlamba  Range 
may  be  regarded  as  being  really  the  edge  of  the  table- 
land, and  when  in  traveUng  up  from  the  coast  one  reaches 
the  watershed,  or  "  divide "  (an  American  term  which 
South  Africans  have  adopted),  one  finds  that  on  the  far- 
ther or  northerly  side  there  is  very  little  descent.  The 
peaks  which  when  seen  from  the  slopes  toward  the  coast 


4 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


looked  high  and  steep  are  on  this  inner  side  insignifi- 
cant, because  they  rise  so  little  above  the  general  level  of 
the  plateau.  This  plateau  runs  away  inland  to  the  west 
and  northwest,  and  occupies  seven  eighths  of  the  surface 
of  South  Africa.  It  dips  gently  on  the  north  to  the  valley 
of  the  Zambesi ;  but  on  the  west  it  spreads  out  over  the 
Kalahari  Desert  and  the  scarcely  less  arid  wastes  of  Da- 
maraland,  maintaining  (except  along  the  lower  course  of  the 
Orange  River)  an  altitude  of  from  3000  to  4000  feet  above 
the  sea,  until  within  a  comparatively  short  distance  of  the 
Atlantic  Ocean. 

The  physical  structure  of  the  country  is  thus  extremely 
simple.  There  is  only  one  considerable  mountain-chain, 
with  a  vast  table-land  Ming  the  interior  behind  it,  and  a 
rough,  hilly  country  lying  between  the  mountains  and  the 
low  belt  which  borders  on  the  Indian  Ocean.  Let  the  reader 
suppose  himself  to  be  a  traveler  wishing  to  cross  the  con- 
tinent from  east  to  west.  Starting  from  a  port,  say  Delagoa 
Bay  or  Beira,  on  the  Portuguese  coast,  the  traveler  will  in 
a  few  hours,  by  either  of  the  railways  which  run  westward 
from  those  ports,  traverse  the  low  strip  which  divides  them 
from  the  hill-country.  To  ascend  the  valleys  and  cross  the 
watershed  of  the  great  Quathlamba  Range  on  to  the  plateau 
takes  a  little  longer,  yet  no  great  time.  Then,  once  upon 
the  plateau,  the  traveler  may  proceed  steadily  to  the  west 
for  more  than  a  thousand  miles  over  an  enormous  stretch 
of  high  but  nearly  level  land,  meeting  no  considerable  emi- 
nence and  crossing  no  perceptible  watershed  till  he  comes 
within  sight  of  the  waves  of  the  Atlantic.  Or  if  he  turns 
to  the  northwest  he  wUl  pass  over  an  undulating  coun- 
try, diversified  only  by  low  hUls,  tUl  he  dips  slowly  into  the 
flat  and  swampy  ground  which  surroimds  Lake  Ngami, 
itself  rather  a  huge  swamp  than  a  lake,  and  descends  very 


PHYSICAL  FEATUBES 


5 


gradually  from  that  level  to  the  banks  of  the  Zambesi,  in 
the  neighborhood  of  the  great  Victoria  Falls.  In  fact, 
this  great  plateau  is  South  Africa,  and  all  the  rest  of  the 
country  along  the  sea-margin  a  mere  appendage  to  it.  But 
so  large  a  part  of  the  plateau  is,  as  we  shall  see  pres- 
ently, condemned  by  its  dryness  to  remain  sterile  and 
very  thinly  peopled,  that  the  interior  has  not  that  pre- 
ponderating importance  which  its  immense  area  might 
seem  to  give  it. 

It  is  not  worth  while  to  describe  the  minor  ridges,— 
though  some  of  them,  especially  in  Cape  Colony,  are  ab- 
rupt and  high  enough  to  be  called  mountains,— for  none 
has  any  great  importance  as  affecting  either  material  or 
historical  conditions.  The  longest  are  those  which  run 
parallel  to  the  dreary  and  almost  uninhabited  west  coast, 
and  form  the  terraces  by  which  the  great  plateau  sinks 
down  to  the  margin  of  the  Atlantic.  Neither  can  I  touch 
on  the  geology,  except  to  observe  that  a  great  part  of  the 
plateau,  especially  in  the  northern  part  and  toward  the 
northeast  end  of  the  Quathlamba  Range,  consists  of  granite 
or  gneiss,  and  is  believed  to  be  of  very  great  antiquity,  i.  e., 
to  have  stood,  as  it  now  stands,  high  above  the  level  of  the 
sea  from  a  very  remote  period  of  the  earth's  history.  The 
rocks  of  the  Karroo  region  are  more  recent.  Nowhere  in 
South  Africa  has  any  area  of  modern  volcanic  action,  much 
less  any  active  volcano,  been  discovered.  More  ancient 
eruptive  rocks,  such  as  greenstones  and  porphyries,  are 
of  frequent  occurrence,  and  are  often  spread  out  in  broad, 
level  sheets  above  the  sedimentary  beds  of  the  Karroo  and 
of  the  Basutoland  and  Free  State  ranges. 

Finally,  it  must  be  noted  that  the  coast  has  extremely 
few  harbors.  From  Cape  Town  eastward  and  northeast- 
ward there  is  no  haven  till  one  reaches  that  of  Durban, 
1* 


6 


niPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


itseK  troubled  by  a  bar,  and  from  Durban  to  the  Zambesi 
no  good  ports  save  Delagoa  Bay  and  Beira.  On  tbe  other 
side  of  the  continent,  Saldanha  Bay,  twenty  miles  north  of 
Cape  Town,  is  an  excellent  harbor.  After  that  the  Atlan- 
tic coast  shows  none  for  a  thousand  ndles. 

So  much  for  the  surface  and  configuration  of  the  country. 
Now  let  us  come  to  the  climate,  which  is  a  not  less  important 
element  in  making  South  Africa  what  it  is. 

The  heat  is,  of  course,  great,  though  less  great  than  a 
traveler  from  North  Africa  or  India  expects  from  the  lati- 
tude. Owing  to  the  vast  mass  of  water  in  the  southern 
hemisphere,  that  hemisphere  is  cooler  in  the  same  latitude 
than  is  the  northern.  Cape  Town,  in  latitude  34°  S.,  has  a 
colder  winter  and  not  so  hot  a  summer  as  Gibraltar  and 
Aleppo,  in  latitude  36°  N.  StiU  the  temperature  is  very 
high  even  at  Durban,  in  latitude  30°  S.,  while  the  northern 
part  of  the  Transvaal  Republic,  and  all  the  territories  of 
the  British  South  Africa  Company,  including  MatabiUland 
and  Mashonaland,  lie  within  the  tropic  of  Capricorn,  that 
is  to  say,  correspond  in  latitude  to  Nubia  and  the  central 
provinces  of  India  between  Bombay  and  Calcutta. 

The  climate  is  also,  over  most  of  the  countrj',  extremely 
dry.  Except  in  a  small  district  round  Cape  Town,  at  the 
southern  extremity  of  the  continent,  there  is  no  proper 
summer  and  winter,  but  only  a  dry  season,  the  seven  or 
eight  months  when  the  weather  is  colder,  and  a  wet  season, 
the  four  or  five  months  when  the  sun  is  highest.  Nor  are 
the  rains  that  faU  in  the  wet  season  so  copious  and  con- 
tinuous as  they  are  in  some  other  hot  countries ;  in  many 
parts  of  India,  for  instance,  or  in  the  West  Indies  and 
Brazil.  Thus  even  in  the  regions  where  the  rainfall  is 
heaviest,  reaching  thirty  inches  or  more  in  the  year,  the 
land  soon  dries  up  and  remains  parched  till  the  next  wet 


PHYSICAL  FEATURES 


7 


season  comes.  The  air  is  therefore  extremely  dry,  and, 
being  dry,  it  is  clear  and  stimulating  in  a  high  degree. 

Now  let  US  note  the  influence  upon  the  climate  of  that 
physical  structure  we  have  just  been  considering.  The 
prevailing  wind,  and  the  wind  that  brings  most  of  the 
rain  in  the  wet  season,  is  the  east  or  southeast.  It  gives 
a  fair  supply  of  moisture  to  the  low  coast  strip  which  has 
been  referred  to  above.  Passing  farther  inland,  it  impinges 
upon  the  hills  which  run  down  from  the  Quathlamba 
Range,  waters  them,  and  falls  in  snow  on  the  loftiest  peaks. 
A  certain  part  of  the  rain-bearing  clouds  passes  still  farther 
inland,  and  scatters  showers  over  the  eastern  part  of  the 
table-land,  that  is  to  say,  over  the  Transvaal,  the  Orange 
Free  State,  eastern  Bechuanaland,  and  the  territories  stiU 
farther  north  toward  the  Zambesi.  Very  little  humidity, 
however,  reaches  the  tracts  farther  to  the  west.  The  north- 
ern part  of  Cape  Colony  as  far  as  the  Orange  River,  the 
western  part  of  Bechuanaland,  and  the  wide  expanse  of 
Damaraland  have  a  quite  trifling  rainfall,  ranging  from 
four  or  five  to  ten  inches  in  the  whole  year.  Under  the 
intense  heat  of  the  sun  this  moisture  soon  vanishes,  the 
surface  bakes  hard,  and  the  vegetation  withers.  All  this 
region  is  therefore  parched  and  arid,  much  of  it,  in  fact, 
a  desert,  and  likely  always  to  remain  so. 

These  great  and  dominant  physical  facts— a  low  coast 
belt,  a  high  interior  plateau,  a  lofty,  rugged  mountain-range 
running  nearly  parallel  to,  and  not  very  far  from,  the  shore 
of  the  ocean,  whence  the  rain-clouds  come,  a  strong  sun,  a 
dry  climate— have  determined  the  character  of  South  Africa 
in  many  ways.  They  explain  the  very  remarkable  fact  that 
South  Africa  has,  broadly  speaking,  no  rivers.  Rivers  are, 
indeed,  marked  on  the  map— rivers  of  great  length  and 
with  many  tributaries ;  but  when  in  traveling  during  the 


8 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


dry  season  you  come  to  them  you  find  either  a  waterless 
bed  or  a  mere  line  of  green  and  perhaps  unsavory  pools. 
The  streams  that  run  south  and  east  from  the  mountains  to 
the  coast  are  short  and  rapid  torrents  after  a  storm,  but  at 
other  times  dwindle  to  feeble  trickles  of  mud.  In  the 
interior  there  are,  to  be  sure,  rivers  which,  like  the 
Orange  River  or  the  Limpopo,  have  courses  hundreds  of 
miles  in  length.  But  they  contain  so  little  water  dur- 
ing three  fom-ths  of  the  year  as  to  be  unserviceable  for 
navigation,  while  most  of  their  tributaries  shrink  in  the 
diy  season  to  a  line  of  pools,  scarcely  supplying  drink 
to  the  cattle  on  their  banks.  This  is  one  of  the  reasons 
why  the  country  remained  so  long  unexplored.  People 
could  not  penetrate  it  by  following  waterways,  as  happened 
both  in  North  and  in  South  America ;  they  were  obHged  to 
travel  by  ox-wagon,  making  only  some  twelve  or  sixteen 
miles  a  day,  and  finding  themselves  obliged  to  halt,  when 
a  good  bit  of  grass  was  reached,  to  rest  and  restore  the 
strength  of  their  cattle.  For  the  same  reason  the  country 
is  now  forced  to  depend  entirely  upon  railways  for  internal 
communication.  There  is  not  a  stream  (except  tidal 
streams)  fit  to  float  anything  drawing  three  feet  of  water. 

It  is  a  curious  experience  to  travel  for  hundreds  of  miles, 
as  one  may  do  in  the  dry  season  in  the  northeastern  part 
of  Cape  Colony  and  in  Bechuanaland,  through  a  country 
which  is  inhabited,  and  covered  in  some  places  with  wood, 
in  others  with  gi-ass  or  shrublets  fit  for  cattle,  and  see  not 
a  di'op  of  running  water,  and  hardly  even  a  stagnant  pond. 
It  is  scarcely  less  strange  that  such  rivers  as  there  are 
should  be  useless  for  navigation.  But  the  cause  is  to  be 
found  in  the  two  facts  already  stated.  In  those  parts 
where  rain  falls  it  comes  at  one  season,  within  three  or 
four  months.    Moreover,  it  comes  then  in  such  heavy 


PHYSICAL  FEATURES  9 

storms  that  for  some  hours,  or  even  days,  the  streams  are 
so  swollen  as  to  be  not  only  impassable  by  wagons,  but  also 
nnnavigable,  because,  although  there  is  plenty  of  water, 
the  current  is  too  violent.  Then  when  the  floods  have 
ceased  the  streams  fall  so  fast,  and  the  channel  becomes  so 
shallow,  that  hardly  even  a  canoe  wiU  float.  The  other 
fact  arises  from  the  proximity  to  the  east  coast  of  the  great 
Quathlamba  chain  of  mountains.  The  rivers  that  flow  from 
it  have  mostly  short  courses,  while  the  few  that  come  down 
from  behind  and  break  through  it,  as  does  the  Limpopo, 
are  interrupted  at  the  place  where  they  break  through  by 
rapids  which  no  boat  can  ascend. 


•  ■> 


CHAPTER  n 


HEALTH 

THE  physical  conditions  just  described  determine  the 
healthfulness  of  the  country,  and  this  is  a  matter 
of  so  much  moment,  especially  to  those  who  think  of  set- 
thng  in  South  Africa,  that  I  take  the  earliest  opportunity 
of  referring  to  it. 

The  sun-heat  would  make  climate  very  tryitig  to  Euro- 
peans, and  of  course  more  trjing  the  farther  north  toward 
the  equator  they  live,  were  it  not  for  the  two  redeeming 
points  I  have  dwelt  on— the  elevation  and  the  dryness  of 
the  interior.  To  be  3000, 4000,  or  5000  feet  above  the  sea 
is  for  most  purposes  the  same  thing  as  being  in  a  more 
temperate  latitude,  and  more  than  five  sixths  in  area  of  the 
districts  which  are  now  inhabited  by  Europeans  have  an 
elevation  of  fully  3000  feet.  Not  merely  the  table-lands 
of  the  Orange  Free  State  and  the  Transvaal,  but  also  by 
far  the  larger  part  of  Cape  Colony  and  nearly  the  whole 
of  Natal  (excluding  a  small  strip  along  the  coast),  attain 
this  elevation.  Thus  even  in  summer,  when  the  heat  is 
great  during  the  day,  the  coolness  of  the  night  refreshes 
the  system.  The  practical  test  of  night  temperature  is 
whether  one  wishes  for  a  blanket  to  sleep  under.  In  Madras 
and  Bombay  all  the  year  round,  in  New  York  through 

10 


HEALTH 


11 


several  montlis  of  summer,  in  Paris  or  sometimes  even  in 
London  for  a  few  weeks  in  July  or  August,  the  lightest 
blanket  is  oppressive,  and  the  continuance  of  the  high  day 
temperatui'e  through  the  hours  of  darkness  exhausts  and 
enfeebles  all  but  vigorous  constitutions.  But  in  South 
Africa  it  is  only  along  the  coast,  in  places  like  Durban, 
Delagoa  Bay,  or  Beira,  that  one  feels  inclined  to  dispense 
with  a  woolen  covering  at  night,  while  in  Johannesburg  or 
Bloemfontein  a  good  thick  blanket  is  none  too  much  even 
in  November,  before  the  cooling  rains  begin,  or  in  Decem- 
ber, when  the  days  are  longest.  In  fact,  the  faU  of  tem- 
perature at  sunset  is  often  a  source  of  risk  to  those  who, 
coming  straight  from  Europe,  have  not  yet  learned  to  guard 
against  sudden  changes,  for  it  causes  chills  which,  if  they 
find  a  weak  organ  to  pounce  upon,  may  produce  serious 
illness.  These  rapid  variations  of  temperature  are  not  con- 
fined to  the  passage  from  day  to  night.  Sometimes  in  the 
midst  of  a  run  of  the  usual  wann,  brilliant  weather  of  the 
dry  season  there  will  come  a  cold,  bitter  southeast  wind, 
covering  the  sky  with  gray  clouds  and  driving  the  traveler 
to  put  on  every  wrapping  he  possesses.  I  remember,  to- 
ward the  end  of  October,  such  a  sudden  "cold  snap"  in  Mat- 
abililand,  only  twenty  degrees  from  the  equator.  We 
shivered  all  day  long  under  a  thick  greatcoat,  and  the  na- 
tives lit  fires  in  front  of  their  huts  and  huddled  round  them 
for  warmth.  Chills  dangerous  to  delicate  people  are  apt  to 
be  produced  by  these  changes,  and  they  often  turn  into 
feverish  attacks,  not  malarial,  though  liable  to  be  con- 
founded with  malarial  fevers.  This  risk  of  encountering 
cold  weather  is  a  concomitant  of  that  power  of  the  south- 
east wind  to  keep  down  the  great  heats,  which,  on  the  whole, 
makes  greatly  for  the  salubrity  of  the  country ;  so  the  gain 
exceeds  the  loss.  But  newcomers  have  to  be  on  their  guard, 


12 


DIPRESSIOXS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


and  travelers  mil  do  weU,  even  between  the  tropic  and  the 
equator,  to  provide  themselves  with  warm  wrappings. 

Strong  as  the  sun  is,  its  direct  rays  seem  to  be  much  less 
dangerous  than  in  India  or  the  eastern  United  States.  Sun- 
stroke is  unusual,  and  one  sees  few  people  wearing,  even  in 
the  tropical  north,  those  hats  of  thick  double  felt  or  those 
sun-helmets  which  are  deemed  indispensable  in  India.  In 
fact,  Eiu'opeans  go  about  with  the  same  head-gear  which 
they  use  in  an  English  summer.  But  the  relation  of  sun- 
stroke to  cHmate  is  obscui*e.  Why  should  it  be  extremely 
rai'e  in  California,  when  it  is  very  common  in  New  York 
in  the  same  latitude  ?  Why  should  it  be  almost  unknown 
in  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  within  seventeen  degi'ees  of  the 
equator?  Its  rarity  in  South  Africa  is  a  great  point  in 
favor  of  the  healthfulness  of  the  coimtry,  and  also  of  the 
ease  and  pleasantness  of  life.  In  India  one  has  to  be 
always  mounting  guard  against  the  sun.  He  is  a  formid- 
able and  ever-present  enemy,  and  he  is  the  more  dangerous 
the  longer  you  Hve  in  the  country.  In  South  Africa  it  is 
only  because  he  dries  up  the  soil  so  terribly  that  the  traveler 
wishes  to  have  less  of  him.  The  born  Afi'icander  seems  to 
love  him. 

The  dryness  of  the  climate  makes  very  strongly  for  its 

salubrity.  It  is  the  absence  of  moisture  no  less  than  the 
elevation  above  sea-level  that  gives  to  the  air  its  fresh, 
keen,  bracing  quality,  the  quality  which  enables  one  to 
support  the  sun-heat,  which  keeps  the  physical  frame  in 
vigor,  which  helps  children  to  grow  up  active  and  healthy, 
which  confines  to  comparatively  few  districts  that  dead- 
liest foe  of  Eui'opeans,  swamp-fever.  Malarial  fever  in 
one  of  its  many  forms,  some  of  them  intennittent,  others 
remittent,  is  the  scotu-ge  of  the  east  coast  as  weU  as  of  the 
west  coast.    To  find  some  means  of  avoiding  it  would  be  to 


HEALTH 


13 


double  the  value  of  Africa  to  the  European  powers  which 
have  been  estabUshing  themselves  on  the  coasts.  No  one 
who  lives  within  thirty  miles  of  the  sea  nearly  all  the  way 
south  from  Cape  Guardaf  ui  to  Zululand  can  hope  to  escape 
it.  It  is  frequent  aU  round  the  great  Nj'anza  lakes,  and 
particularly  severe  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile  from  the  lakes 
downward  to  Khartum.  It  prevails  through  the  compar- 
atively low  countiy  which  lies  along  the  Congo  and  the  chief 
tributaries  of  that  great  stream.  It  hangs  like  a  death-cloud 
over  the  valley  of  the  Zambesi,  and  is  found  up  to  a  height 
of  3000  or  4000  feet,  sometimes  even  higher,  in  Nyassaland 
and  the  lower  parts  of  the  British  territories  that  stretch 
to  Lake  Tanganyika.  The  Administrator  of  German  East 
Africa  has  lately  declared  that  there  is  not  a  square  rmle 
of  that  vast  region  that  can  be  deemed  free  from  it.  Even 
along  the  generally  arid  shores  of  Damaraland  there  are 
spots  where  it  is  to  be  feared.  But  Cape  Colony  and  Natal 
and  the  Orange  Free  State  are  almost  exempt  from  it.  So, 
too,  are  all  the  higher  parts  of  the  Transvaal,  of  Bechuana- 
land,  of  MatabUiland,  and  of  Mashonaland.  Roughly 
speaking,  one  may  say  that  the  upper  boundary  line  of 
malarial  fevers  in  these  countries  is  about  4500  feet  above 
the  sea,  and  where  fevers  occur  at  a  height  above  3000  feet 
they  are  seldom  of  a  virulent  type.  Thus,  while  the  lower 
parts  of  the  Transvaal  between  the  Quathlamba  Mountains 
and  the  sea  are  terribly  unhealthf  ul,  while  the  Portuguese 
country  behind  Delagoa  Bay  and  Beira  as  far  as  the  foot 
of  the  hills  is  equally  dangerous,— Beira  itself  has  the  bene- 
fit of  a  strong  sea-breeze, — by  far  the  larger  part  of  the 
recently  occupied  British  territories  north  and  west  of  the 
Transvaal  is  practically  safe.  It  is,  of  course,  proper  to 
take  certain  precautions,  to  avoid  chills  and  the  immoderate 
use  of  alcohol,  and  it  is  specially  important  to  observe  such 


14 


niPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


precautions  during  and  immediately  after  the  wet  season, 
when  the  sun  is  raising  vapors  from  the  moist  soU,  when  new 
vegetation  has  sprung  up,  and  when  the  long  grass  which 
has  grown  dui'ing  the  first  rains  is  rotting  under  the  later 
rains.  Places  which  are  quite  healthful  in  the  dry  weather, 
such  as  Gaberones  and  the  rest  of  the  upper  valley  of  the 
rivers  Notwani  and  Limpopo  in  eastern  Bechuanaland,then 
become  dangerous,  because  they  lie  on  the  banks  of  streams 
which  inundate  the  lower  grounds.  Much  depends  on  the 
local  circumstances  of  each  spot.  To  illustrate  the  differ- 
ences between  one  place  and  another,  I  may  take  the  case 
of  the  three  chief  posts  in  the  territories  of  the  British 
South  Africa  Company.  Bulawayo,  nearly  4000  feet  above 
the  sea,  is  always  practically  free  from  malaria,  for  it  stands 
in  a  dry,  breezy  upland  with  few  trees  and  short  grass. 
Fort  Victoria,  3670  feet  above  the  sea,  is  salubrious  enough 
during  the  dry  season,  but  often  feverish  after  the  rains, 
because  there  is  some  wet  ground  near  it.  Fort  Salisbury, 
4900  feet  above  the  sea,  is  now  healthful  at  all  times,  but 
parts  of  it  used  to  be  feverish  at  the  end  of  the  rainy  sea- 
son, untU  they  were  drained  in  the  beginning  of  1895.  So 
Pretoria,  the  capital  of  the  Transvaal  RepubUc,  is  apt  to 
be  malarious  during  the  months  of  rain,  because  (although 
4470  feet  above  the  sea)  it  Hes  in  a  well-watered  hollow, 
while  at  Johannesburg,  thirty  miles  off,  on  the  top  of  a 
high,  bare,  stony  I'idge,  one  has  no  occasion  to  fear  fever, 
though  the  want  of  water  and  proper  drainage,  as  well  as 
the  quantity  of  fine  dust  from  the  highly  comminuted  ore 
and  "  tailings  "  with  which  the  air  is  filled,  had  until  1896 
given  rise  to  other  maladies,  and  especially  to  septic 
pneumonia.  These  are  diminishing  with  a  better  muni- 
cipal administration,  and  similarly  malaria  wiU  doubtless 
vanish  from  many  spots  where  it  is  now  rife  when  the 


HEALTH 


15 


swampy  grounds  have  been  drained  and  the  long  grass 
eaten  down  by  larger  herds  of  cattle. 

It  is  apparently  the  dryness  and  the  purity  of  the  air 
which  have  given  South  Africa  its  comparative  immunity 
from  most  forms  of  chest  disease.  Many  sufferers  from 
consumption,  for  whom  a  speedy  death,  if  they  remained 
in  Europe,  has  been  predicted,  recover  health,  and  retain 
it  till  old  age.  The  spots  chiefly  recommended  are  on  the 
high  grounds  of  the  interior  plateau,  where  the  atmosphere 
is  least  humid.  Ceres,  ninety-four  mUes  by  rail  from  Cape 
Town,  and  Beaufort  West,  in  the  Karroo,  have  been  re- 
sorted to  as  sanatoria ;  and  Kimberley,  the  city  of  diamonds, 
has  an  equally  high  reputation  for  the  quahty  of  its  air. 
However,  some  of  the  coast  districts  are  scarcely  less  eli- 
gible, though  Cape  Town  has  too  many  rapid  changes  of 
weather,  and  Durban  too  sultry  a  summer,  to  make  either 
of  them  a  desirable  place  of  residence  for  invalids. 

Apart  from  all  questions  of  specific  complaints,  there  can 
be  no  doubt  as  to  the  general  effect  of  the  climate  upon 
health.  The  aspect  of  the  people  soon  convinces  a  visitor 
that,  in  spite  of  its  heat,  the  country  is  well  fitted  to  main- 
tain in  vigor  a  race  drawn  from  the  cooler  parts  of  Europe. 
Comparatively  few  adult  Englishmen  sprung  from  fathers 
themselves  born  in  Africa  are  as  yet  to  be  found.  But  the 
descendants  of  the  Dutch  and  Huguenot  settlers  are  Afri- 
canders up  to  the  sixth  or  seventh  generation,  and  the  stock 
shows  no  sign  of  losing  either  its  stature  or  its  physical 
strength.  Athletic  sports  are  pursued  as  eagerly  as  in 
England. 


CHAPTER  m 


WILD  ANIMALS  AND  THEIR  FATE 

WHEN  first  explored,  South  Africa  was  unusually  rich 
in  the  kinds  both  of  plants  and  of  animals  which  it 
contained ;  and  until  forty  or  fifty  years  ago  the  number, 
size,  and  beauty  of  its  wild  creatui-es  were  the  things  by 
which  it  was  chiefly  known  to  Europeans,  who  had  little 
suspicion  of  its  mineral  wealth,  and  little  foreboding 
of  the  trouble  that  wealth  would  cause.  Why  it  was  so 
rich  in  species  is  a  question  on  which  geology  will  one 
day  be  able  to  throw  light,  for  much  may  depend  on  the 
relations  of  land  and  sea  in  earlier  epochs  of  the  earth's 
history.  Probably  the  great  diversities  of  elevation  and 
of  climate  which  exist  in  the  southern  part  of  the  con- 
tinent have  contributed  to  this  profuse  variety ;  and  the 
fact  that  the  country  was  occupied  only  by  savages,  who 
did  little  or  nothing  to  extinguish  any  species  nature  had 
planted,  may  have  caused  many  weak  species  to  sxirvive 
when  equally  weak  ones  were  perishing  in  Asia  and  Europe 
at  the  hands  of  more  advanced  races  of  mankind.  The 
country  was  therefore  the  paradise  of  hunters.  Besides 
the  lion  and  the  leopard,  there  were  many  other  great  cats, 
some  of  remarkable  beauty.  Besides  the  elephant,  which 
was  in  some  districts  very  abundant,  there  existed  two 

16 


WILD  ANIMALS  AND  THEIE  FATE  17 


kinds  of  rhinoceros,  as  well  as  the  hippopotamus  and  the 
giraffe.  There  was  a  wonderful  profusion  of  antelopes, — 
thirty-one  species  have  been  enumerated,— including  such 
noble  animals  as  the  eland  and  koodoo,  such  beautiful  ones 
as  the  springbok  and  klipspringer,  such  fierce  ones  as  the 
blue  wildebeest  or  gnu.  There  were  two  kinds  of  zebra, 
a  quagga,  and  a  buffalo  both  huge  and  dangerous.  Prob- 
ably nowhere  in  the  world  could  so  great  a  variety  of 
beautiful  animals  be  seen  or  a  larger  variety  of  formidable 
ones  be  pursued. 

AH  this  has  changed,  and  changed  of  late  years  with 
fatal  speed,  under  the  increasing  range  and  accuracy  of 
firearms,  the  increasing  accessibility  of  the  country  to  the 
European  sportsman,  and  the  increasing  number  of  natives 
who  possess  guns.  The  Dutch  Boer  of  sixty  years  ago 
was  a  good  marksman  and  loved  the  chase,  but  he  did  not 
shoot  for  fame  and  in  order  to  write  about  his  exploits, 
while  the  professional  hunter  who  shot  to  sell  ivory  or  rare 
specimens  had  hardly  begun  to  exist.  The  work  of  de- 
struction has  latterly  gone  on  so  fast  that  the  effect  of 
stating  what  is  stiU  left  can  hardly  be  to  tempt  others  to 
join  in  that  work,  but  may  help  to  show  how  urgent  is  the 
duty  of  arresting  the  process  of  extermination. 

When  the  first  Dutchmen  settled  at  the  Cape  the  lion 
was  so  common  as  to  be  one  of  the  every-day  perils  of  life. 
Tradition  points  out  a  spot  in  the  pleasure-ground  attached 
to  the  Houses  of  Parliament  at  Cape  Town  where  a  lion  was 
found  prowling  in  what  was  then  the  commandant's  gar- 
den. In  1653  it  was  feared  that  lions  would  storm  the 
fort  to  get  at  the  sheep  within  it,  and  so  late  as  1694  they 
kUled  nine  cows  within  sight  of  the  present  castle.  To- 
day, however,  if  the  Hon  is  to  be  found  at  all  within  the 
limits  of  Cape  Colony,  it  is  only  in  the  wilderness  along 


18 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


the  banks  of  the  Orange  River.  He  was  abundant  in  the 
Orange  Free  State  when  it  became  independent  in  1854,  but 
has  been  long  extinct  there.  He  survives  in  a  few  spots  in 
the  north  of  the  Transvaal  and  in  the  wilder  parts  of  Zulu- 
land  and  Bechuanaland,  and  is  not  unfrequent  in  MatabUi- 
land  and  Mashonaland.  One  may,  however,  pass  through 
those  countries,  as  I  did  in  October,  1895,  without  having 
a  chance  of  seeing  the  beast  or  even  hearing  its  nocturnal 
voice,  and  those  who  go  hunting  this  grandest  of  all  quarries 
are  often  disappointed.  In  the  strip  of  flat  land  between  the 
mountains  and  the  Indian  Ocean  behind  Sofala  and  Beira, 
and  in  the  Zambesi  Valley,  there  remain  lions  enough ;  but 
the  number  diminishes  so  fast  that  even  in  that  malarious 
and  thinly  peopled  land  none  may  be  left  thirty  years  hence. 

The  leopard  is  still  to  be  found  all  over  the  country,  ex- 
cept where  the  population  is  thickest,  and  as  the  leopard 
haunts  rocky  places,  it  is,  though  much  hunted  for  the  sake 
of  its  beautiful  skin,  less  Hkely  to  be  exterminated.  Some 
of  the  smaller  carnivora,  especially  the  pretty  IjTixes,  have 
now  become  very  rare.  There  is,  however,  a  pretty  good 
supply  of  hyenas. 

Elephants  used  to  roam  in  gi*eat  herds  over  all  the  more 
woody  districts,  but  have  now  been  quite  driven  out  of 
Cape  Colony,  Natal,  and  the  two  Dutch  republics,  save  that 
in  a  narrow  strip  of  forest  country  near  the  south  coast, 
between  Mossel  Bay  and  Algoa  Bay,  some  herds  are  pre- 
served by  the  Cape  government.  So,  too,  in  the  north  of 
the  Transvaal  there  are  still  a  few  left,  also  specially  pre- 
served. It  is  only  on  the  east  coast  south  of  the  Zambesi, 
and  here  and  there  along  that  river,  that  the  wild  elephant 
can  now  be  found.  From  these  regions  he  will  soon  vanish, 
and  unless  something  is  done  to  stop  the  hunting  of  ele- 
phants the  total  extinction  of  the  animal  in  Africa  may  be 


WILD  ANIIIALS  AND  THEIE  FATE  19 


expected  within  another  half -century ;  for  the  foolish  pas- 
sion for  slaughter  which  sends  so-called  sportsmen  on  his 
track,  and  the  high  price  of  ivory,  are  lessening  his  numbers 
day  by  day.  A  similar  fate  awaits  the  rhinoceros,  once 
common  even  near  the  Cape,  where  he  overturned  one 
day  the  coach  of  a  Dutch  governor.  The  white  kind, 
which  is  the  larger,  is  now  all  but  extinct,  while  the 
black  rhinoceros  has  become  scarce  even  in  the  northern 
regions  between  the  Limpopo  and  the  Zambesi.  The 
hippopotamus,  protected  by  his  aquatic  habits,  has  fared 
better,  and  may  still  be  seen  plunging  and  splashing  in 
the  waters  of  the  Pungwe,  the  Limpopo,  and  other  rivers  in 
Portuguese  East  Africa.  But  Natal  will  soon  know  this 
great  amphibian  no  more,  and  within  Cape  Colony,  where 
the  creature  was  once  abundant  even  in  the  swamps  that 
bordered  Table  Bay,  he  is  now  to  be  found  only  in  the  pools 
along  the  lower  course  of  the  Orange  Kiver.  The  crocodile 
holds  his  ground  better  and  is  still  a  serious  danger  to  oxen 
who  go  down  to  drink  at  the  streams.  In  Zululand  and 
all  along  the  east  coast,  as  well  as  in  the  streams  of  Ma- 
shonaland  and  Matabililand,  there  is  hardly  a  pool  which 
does  not  contain  some  of  these  formidable  saurians.  Even 
when  the  water  shrinks  in  the  dry  season  till  little  but 
mud  seems  to  be  left,  the  crocodile,  getting  deep  into  the 
mud,  maintains  a  torpid  life  till  the  rains  bring  him  back 
into  activity.  I  was  told  that  Lo  Bengula  sometimes  cast 
those  who  had  displeased  him,  bound  hand  and  foot,  into 
a  river  to  be  devoured  by  these  monsters,  which  he  did  not 
permit  to  be  destroyed,  regarding  them  as  totems  of  the 
Matabili,  or  perhaps  of  the  Makalaka. 

The  giraffe  has  become  very  scarce,  though  a  herd  or 
two  are  left  in  the  south  of  Matabililand,  and  a  larger 
number  in  the  Kalahari  Desert.    So,  also,  the  zebra  and 


20 


niPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


many  of  the  species  of  antelopes,  especially  the  larger  kinds, 
like  the  eland  and  the  sable,  are  disappearing,  while  the 
buffalo  is  now  only  to  be  seen  (except  in  a  part  of  the  Colony 
where  a  herd  is  preserved)  in  the  Portuguese  territories 
.along  the  Zambesi  and  the  east  coast.  The  recent  cattle- 
plague  has  fallen  heavily  upon  him.  So  the  ostrich  would 
probably  now  remain  only  in  the  wilds  of  the  Kalahari  had 
not  large  farms  been  created  in  Cape  Colony,  where  the 
animal  is  kept  inclosed  for  the  sake  of  its  feathers.  On 
these  farms,  especially  near  Graham's  To^ti  and  in  the 
Oudtshorn  district,  one  may  see  great  numbers;  nor  is 
there  a  prettier  sight  than  that  of  two  parent  birds  running 
along,  with  a  numerous  progeny  of  little  ones  behind  them. 
Though  in  a  sense  domesticated,  they  are  often  dangerous, 
for  they  kick  forward  with  great  violence,  and  the  person 
whom  they  knock  down  and  begin  to  trample  on  has  little 
chance  of  escape  with  his  Hfe.  Fortunately,  it  is  easy  to 
drive  them  off  with  a  stick  or  even  an  umbrella ;  and  we 
were  warned  not  to  cross  an  ostrich-farm  without  some 
STich  defense. 

Snakes,  though  there  are  many  venomous  species,  seem 
to  be  less  feared  than  in  India  or  the  wilder  parts  of 
Australia.  The  python  grows  to  twenty  feet  or  more, 
but  is,  of  course,  not  poisonous,  and  never  assails  man 
unless  first  molested.  The  black  moniba,  which  is  nearly 
as  large  as  a  rattlesnake,  is,  however,  a  dangerous  creature, 
being  ready  to  attack  man  without  provocation,  and  the 
bite  is  fatal  in  less  than  an  hour.  One  sees  many  skins  of 
this  snake  in  the  tropical  parts  of  South  Africa,  and  hears 
many  thrilling  tales  of  combats  with  them.  They  are  no 
longer  common  in  the  more  settled  and  temperate  regions. 

Although  even  in  Cape  Colony  and  the  Dutch  repub- 
lics there  is  stiU  more  four-footed  game  to  be  had  than 


WILD  AOTMALS  AND  THEIR  FATE  21 


anywhere  in  Europe,  there  remain  only  two  regions 
where  large  animals  can  be  killed  in  any  considerable 
numbers.  One  of  these  is  the  Portuguese  territory  be- 
tween Delagoa  Bay  and  the  Zambesi,  together  with  the 
adjoining  parts  of  the  Transvaal,  where  the  lower  spurs 
of  the  Quathlamba  Range  descend  to  the  plain.  This  dis- 
trict is  very  malarious  during  and  after  the  rains,  and  most 
of  it  unhealthful  at  aU  seasons.  The  other  region  is  the 
Kalahari  Desert  and  the  country  north  of  it  between  Lake 
Ngami  and  the  Upper  Zambesi.  The  Kalahari  is  so  water- 
less as  to  offer  considerable  difficulties  to  European  hunters, 
and  the  country  round  Lake  Ngami  is  swampy  and  feverish. 
So  far  the  wild  creatures  have  nature  in  their  favor ;  yet 
the  passion  for  killing  is  in  many  persons  so  strong  that 
neither  thirst  nor  fever  deters  them,  and  if  the  large  game 
are  to  be  saved,  it  will  clearly  be  necessary  to  place  them 
under  legal  protection.  This  has  been  attempted  so  far  as 
regards  the  elephant,  rhinoceros,  giraffe,  and  eland.  In 
German  East  Africa  Dr.  von  Wissmann,  the  Administrator 
of  that  territorj',  has  recently  (1896)  gone  further,  and  or- 
dained restrictions  on  the  slaughter  of  aU  the  larger  ani- 
mals, except  predatory  ones.  The  governments  of  the  two 
British  colonies  and  the  two  Boer  republics,  which  have 
already  done  well  in  trying  to  preserve  some  of  the  rarest 
and  finest  beasts,  ought  to  go  thoroughly  into  the  question 
and  enact  a  complete  protective  code.  Still  more  neces- 
saiy  is  it  that  a  similar  course  should  be  taken  by  the  Brit- 
ish South  Africa  Company  and  by  the  Imperial  Govern- 
ment, in  whose  territories  there  stUl  survive  more  of  the 
great  beasts.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  even  the  lion  and 
some  of  the  rare  lynxes  will  ultimately  receive  considera- 
tion. Noxious  as  they  are,  it  would  be  a  pity  to  see  them 
wholly  exterminated.    When  I  was  in  India,  in  the  year 

2* 


22 


niPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


1888, 1  was  told  that  there  were  only  seven  lions  then  left 
in  that  vast  area,  all  of  them  well  cared  for.  The  work  of 
slaughter  ought  to  be  checked  in  South  Africa  before  the 
number  gets  quite  so  low  as  this,  and  though  there  may 
be  difficulties  in  restraining  the  natives  from  killing  the 
big  game,  it  must  be  remembered  that  as  regards  many 
animals  it  is  the  European,  rather  than  the  native,  who  is 
the  chief  agent  of  destruction. 

The  predatory  animals  which  are  now  most  harmful  to 
the  farmer  are  the  baboons,  which  infest  rocky  districts  and 
kill  the  lambs  in  such  great  numbers  that  the  Cape  govern- 
ment offers  bounties  for  their  slaughter.  But  no  large  ani- 
mal does  mischief  for  a  moment  comparable  to  that  of  the 
two  insect  plagues  which  vex  the  eastern  half  of  the  coun- 
try, the  white  ants  and  the  locusts.  Of  these  I  shall  have 
something  to  say  later. 


CHAPTER  lY 


VEGETATION 

THE  flora  of  South  Africa  is  extremely  rich,  showing  a 
number  of  genera  and  of  species  which,  in  proportion 
to  its  area,  exceeds  the  number  found  in  most  other  parts 
of  the  world.  But  whether  this  wealth  is  due  to  the  diversity 
of  physical  conditions  which  the  country  presents,  or  rather 
to  geological  causes,  that  is,  to  the  fact  that  there  may  at 
some  remote  period  have  been  land  connections  with  other 
regions  which  have  facilitated  the  immigration  of  plants 
from  various  sides,  is  a  matter  on  which  science  cannot  yet 
pronounce,  for  both  the  geology  and  the  flora  of  the  whole 
African  continent  have  been  very  imperfectly  examined. 
It  is,  however,  worth  remarking  that  there  are  marked 
affinities  between  the  general  character  of  the  flora  of  the 
southwestern  corner  of  South  Africa  and  that  of  the  flora 
of  southwestern  Australia,  and  similar  affinities  between 
the  flora  of  southeastern  and  tropical  Africa  and  the  flora 
of  India,  while  the  relations  to  South  America  are  fewer 
and  much  less  marked.  This  fact  would  seem  to  point  to 
the  great  antiquity  of  the  South  Atlantic  Ocean. 

To  give  even  the  scantiest  account,  however,  of  the 
plants  of  South  Africa  woidd  obviously  be  impossible. 
AU  I  propose  is  to  convey  some  slight  impression  of  the 

23 


24 


niPEESSIONS  OP  SOUTH  AFEICA 


part  which  its  vegetation,  and  particularly  its  trees,  play 
in  the  landscape  and  in  the  economic  conditions  of  the 
country.  Even  this  I  can  do  very  imperfectly,  because, 
like  most  travelers,  I  passed  thi-ough  large  parts  of  the 
country  in  the  dry  season,  when  three  fourths  of  the  her- 
baceous plants  are  out  of  flower. 

No  part  of  the  country  is  richer  in  beautiful  flowers  than 
the  immediate  neighborhood  of  Cape  Town.  This  extreme 
southwestern  corner  of  Africa  has  a  cUmate  of  the  soiith 
temperate  zone ;  that  is  to  say,  it  has  a  real  summer  and  a 
real  winter,  and  gets  most  of  its  rain  in  winter,  whereas  the 
rest  of  South  Africa  has  only  a  wet  season  and  a  dry  sea- 
son, the  latter  coming  in  winter.  So,  too,  this  comer  round 
Cape  Town  has  a  vegetation  characteristically  its  own,  and 
differing  markedly  from  that  of  the  arid  Karroo  regions  to 
the  north,  and  that  of  the  warm  subtropical  regions  in  the 
east  of  the  Colony  and  in  Natal.  It  is  here  that  the  plants 
flourish  which  Europeans  and  Americans  first  came  to  know 
and  which  are  still  to  them  the  most  familiar  examples  of 
the  South  African  flora.  Heaths,  for  instance,  of  which 
there  are  said  to  be  no  less  than  three  hundred  and  fifty  spe- 
cies in  this  small  district,  some  of  extraordinary  beauty  and 
brilMance,  are  scarcely  found  outside  of  it.  I  saw  two  or 
three  species  on  the  high  peaks  of  Basutoland,  and  beheve 
some  occur  as  far  north  as  the  tropic  on  the  tops  of  the 
Quathlamba  Range ;  but  in  the  lower  grounds,  and  even 
on  the  plateau  of  the  Karroo,  they  are  absent.  The  general 
aspect  of  the  vegetation  on  the  Karroo,  and  eastward  over 
the  plateau  into  Bechuanaland  and  the  Transvaal,  is  to  the 
traveler's  eye  monotonous,  a  fact  due  to  the  general  uni- 
formity of  the  geological  formations  and  the  general  dry- 
ness of  the  surface.  In  Natal  and  in  Mashonaland  types 
different  from  those  of  either  the  Cape  or  the  Karroo  ap- 


VEGETATION 


25 


pear,  and  I  have  never  seen  a  more  beautiful  and  varied 
alpine  flora  than  on  a  lofty  summit  of  Basutoland  which  I 
ascended  on  November  23.  But  even  in  Mashonaland,  and 
in  Matabililand  still  more,  the  herbaceous  plants  make,  at 
least  in  the  dry  season,  comparatively  little  show.  I  foiind 
the  number  of  conspicuous  species  less  than  I  had  expected, 
and  the  diversity  of  types  from  the  types  that  prevail  in 
the  southern  part  of  the  plateau  (in  Bechuanaland  and  the 
Orange  Free  State)  less  marked.  This  is  doubtless  due  to 
the  general  similarity  of  the  conditions  that  prevail  over 
the  plateau.  Everywhere  the  same  hot  days  and  cold 
nights,  everywhere  the  same  dryness. 

However,  I  must  avoid  details,  especially  details  which 
would  be  interesting  only  to  a  botanist,  and  be  content 
with  a  few  words  on  those  more  conspicuous  features  of  the 
vegetation  which  the  traveler  notes,  and  which  go  to  make 
up  his  general  impression  of  the  country. 

Speaking  broadly.  South  Africa  is  a  bare  country,  and  this 
is  the  more  remarkable  because  it  is  a  new  country,  where 
man  has  not  had  time  to  work  much  destruction.  There  are 
ancient  forests  along  the  south  coast  of  Cape  Colony  and 
Natal,  the  best  of  which  are  (in  the  former  colony)  now  care- 
fully preserved  and  administered  by  a  Forest  Department 
of  Government.  Such  is  the  great  Knysna  forest,  where 
elephants  still  roam  wild.  But  even  in  these  forests  few 
trees  exceed  fifty  or  sixty  feet  in  height,  the  tallest  being 
the  so-called  yellow- wood,  and  the  most  useful  the  sneeze- 
wood.  On  the  slopes  of  the  hiUs  above  Graham's  Town 
and  King  WUliam's  Town  one  finds  (besides  real  forests 
here  and  there)  immense  masses  of  dense  scrub,  or  "  bush," 
usually  from  four  to  eight  feet  in  height,  sometimes  with 
patches  of  the  prickly-pear,  an  invader  from  America, 
and  a  formidable  one ;  for  its  spines  hurt  the  cattle  and 


26 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


make  passage  by  men  a  troublesome  business.  It  was  this 
dense,  low  scrub  which  constituted  the  great  difficulty  of 
British  troops  in  the  fierce  and  protracted  Kafir  wars  of 
fifty  years  ago;  for  the  ground  which  the  scrub  covers 
was  impassable  except  by  narrow  and  tortuous  paths 
known  only  to  the  natives,  and  it  afforded  them  admirable 
places  for  ambush  and  for  retreat.  Nowadays  a  large  part 
of  the  bush-covered  land  is  used  for  ostrich-farms,  and  it 
is,  indeed,  fit  for  little  else.  The  scrub  is  mostly  dry,  while 
the  larger  forests  are  comparatively  damp,  and  often  beauti- 
ful with  flowering  trees,  small  tree-ferns,  and  flexile  climb- 
ers. But  the  trees  are  not  lofty  enough  to  give  any  of  that 
dignity  which  a  European  forest,  say  in  England  or  Ger- 
many or  Norway,  often  possesses,  and  as  the  native  kinds 
are  mostly  evergreens,  their  leaves  have  comparatively 
little  variety  of  tint.  One  of  the  most  graceful  is  the  curi- 
ous sUver-tree,  so  called  from  the  whitish  sheen  of  one  side 
of  its  leaves,  which  grows  abundantly  on  the  slopes  of  Table 
Mountain,  but  is  found  hardly  anywhere  else  in  the  Colony. 

If  this  is  the  character  of  the  woods  within  reach  of  the 
coast  rains,  much  more  conspicuous  is  the  want  of  trees  and 
the  poorness  of  those  scattered  here  and  there  on  the  great 
interior  plateau.  In  the  desert  region,  that  is  to  say,  the  Kar- 
roo, the  northern  part  of  Cape  Colony  to  the  Orange  River, 
western  Bechuanaland,  and  the  German  territories  of  Na- 
maqualand  and  Damaraland,  there  are  hardly  any  trees, 
except  small,  thorny  mimosas  (they  are  really  acacias,  the 
commonest  being  Acacia  harrida),  whose  scanty,  light-green 
foliage  casts  little  shade.  On  the  higher  mountains,  where 
there  is  a  little  more  moisture,  a  few  other  shrubs  or  small 
trees  may  be  foimd,  and  sometimes  beside  a  watercourse, 
where  a  stream  runs  during  the  rains,  the  eye  is  refreshed 
by  a  few  slender  willows ;  but  speaking  generally,  this  huge 
desert,  one  third  of  South  Africa,  contains  nothing  but 


VEGETATION 


27 


low  bushes,  few  of  which  are  fit  even  for  fuel.  Farther 
east,  where  the  rainfall  is  heavier,  the  trees,  though  still 
small,  are  more  frequent  and  less  thorny.  Parts  of  the 
great  plain  round  Kimberley  were  tolerably  well  wooded 
thirty  years  ago,  but  the  trees  have  aU  been  cut  down  to 
make  mine  props  or  for  fire-wood.  North  of  Maf eking  the 
rolling  flats  and  low  hills  of  Bechuanaland  are  pretty 
fairly  wooded,  and  so  to  a  less  degree  are  the  adjoining 
parts  of  the  Transvaal  and  MatabUiland.  The  road  going 
north  from  Mafeking  passes  through  some  three  hundred 
miles  of  such  woodlands,  but  a  less  beautiful  or  interesting 
woodland  I  have  never  seen.  The  trees  are  mostly  the 
thorny  mimosas  I  have  mentioned.  None  exceeds  thirty, 
few  reach  twenty-five,  feet.  Though  they  grow  loosely 
scattered,  the  space  between  them  is  either  bare  or  occupied 
by  low  and  very  prickly  bushes.  The  ground  is  parched, 
and  one  can  get  no  shade,  except  by  standing  close  under 
a  trunk  somewhat  thicker  than  its  neighbors.  StOl 
farther  north  the  timber  is  hardly  larger,  though  the 
general  aspect  of  the  woods  is  improved  by  the  more  fre- 
quent occurrence  of  flowering  trees,  some  sweet-scented, 
with  glossy  leaves  and  small  white  flowers,  some  with 
gorgeous  clusters  of  blossoms.  Three  are  particularly 
handsome.  One,  usually  called  the  Kafir-boom,  has  large 
flowers  of  a  brilliant  crimson.  Another  {Lonchocarpus 
speciosus^),  for  which  no  English  name  seems  to  exist, 
shows  lovely  pendulous  flowers  of  a  bluish  Ulac,  resem- 
bhng  in  color  those  of  the  wistaria.    The  third  is  an  ar- 

1  I  owe  these  names  to  the  kindness  of  the  authorities  at  the  Royal 
Gardens  at  Kew,  who  have  been  good  enough  to  look  through  fifty-four 
dried  specimens  which  I  collected  and  preserved  as  well  as  I  could 
whUe  traveling  through  Mashonaland  and  Basutoland.  Eleven  of 
these  fifty-four  were  pronounced  to  be  species  new  to  science,  a  fact 
which  shows  how  much  remains  to  be  done  in  the  way  of  botanical 
exploration. 


28 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFEICA 


boraceous  St.- John's- wort  (Hypericum  Schimperi^),  which 
I  found  growing  in  a  valley  of  Manicaland,  at  a  height  of 
nearly  4000  feet  above  the  sea.  All  three  would  be  great 
ornaments  to  a  Eui'opean  shrubbery  cotdd  they  be  induced 
to  bear  the  climate,  which,  in  the  case  of  the  two  latter  (for  I 
hardly  think  the  Kafir-boom  would  suit  a  colder  air),  seems 
not  impossible.  In  Manicaland,  among  the  mountains 
which  form  the  eastern  edge  of  the  plateau,  the  trees  are 
taller,  handsomer,  and  more  tropical  in  their  character, 
and  palms,  though  of  no  great  height,  are  sometimes 
seen.  But  not  even  in  the  most  humid  of  the  valleys  and 
on  the  lower  spurs  of  the  range,  where  it  sinks  into  the 
coast  plain,  nor  along  the  swampy  banks  of  the  I*ungwe 
River,  did  I  see  any  tree  more  than  sixty  feet  high,  and 
few  more  than  thirty.  Neither  was  there  any  of  that  lux- 
uriant undergrowth  which  makes  some  tropical  forests, 
like  those  at  the  foot  of  the  Nilghiri  Hills  in  India,  or  in 
some  of  the  isles  of  the  Pacific  so  impressive  as  evidences 
of  the  power  and  ceaseless  activity  of  nature. 

The  poverty  of  the  woods  in  Bechuanaland  and  Matabili- 
land  seems  to  be  due  not  merely  to  the  dryness  of  the  soil 
and  to  the  thin  and  sandy  character  which  so  often  marks 
it,  but  also  to  the  constant  grass-fires.  The  grass  is  gener- 
ally short,  so  that  these  fires  do  not  kill  the  trees ;  nor 
does  one  hear  of  such  great  forest  conflagrations  as  are 
frequent  and  ruinous  in  westeiTi  America  and  by  no  means 
unknown  in  the  south  of  Cape  Colony.  But  these  fires 
doubtless  injure  the  younger  trees  sufficiently  to  stunt  their 
growth,  and  this  mischief  is,  of  course,  all  the  greater  when 
an  exceptionally  diy  year  occurs.  In  such  years  the  grass- 
fires,  then  most  frequent,  may  destroy  the  promise  of  the 
wood  over  a  vast  area. 

1  See  note  on  p.  27. 


VEGETATION 


29 


The  want  of  forests  in  South  Africa  is  one  of  the  greatest 
misfortunes  of  the  country,  for  it  makes  timber  costly ;  it 
helps  to  reduce  the  rainfall,  and  it  aggravates  the  tendency 
of  the  rain,  when  it  comes,  to  run  off  rapidly  in  a  sudden 
fi'eshet.  Forests  have  a  powerful  influence  upon  climate 
in  holding  moisture,^  and  not  only  moisture,  but  soil  also. 
In  South  Africa  the  violent  rain-storms  sweep  away  the 
surface  of  the  ground,  and  prevent  the  deposition  of  vege- 
table mold.  Nothing  retains  that  mold  or  the  soil  formed 
by  decomposed  rock  so  well  as  a  covering  of  wood  and 
the  herbage  which  the  neighborhood  of  comparatively 
moist  woodland  helps  to  support.  It  is  much  to  be  desired 
that  in  all  parts  of  the  country  where  trees  will  grow  trees 
should  be  planted,  and  that  those  which  remain  should  be 
protected.  Unfortunately,  most  of  the  South  African  trees 
grow  slowly,  so  where  planting  has  been  attempted  it  is 
chiefly  foreign  sorts  that  are  tried.  Among  these  the  first 
place  belongs  to  the  Australian  gimas,  because  they  shoot 
up  faster  than  any  others.  One  finds  them  now  everywhere, 
mostly  in  rows  or  groups  round  a  house  or  a  hamlet,  but 
sometimes  also  in  regular  plantations.  They  have  become 
a  conspicuous  feature  in  the  landscape  of  the  veldt  plateau, 
especially  in  those  places  where  there  was  no  wood,  or  the 
little  that  existed  has  been  destroyed.  Kimberley,  for  in- 
stance, and  Pretoria  are  beginning  to  be  embowered  in 
groves  of  eucalyptus;  Bulawayo  is  following  suit;  and 
all  over  MatabiUland  and  Mashonaland  one  discovers  in  the 

^  It  has  been  plausibly  suggested  that  one  reason  why  many  English 
rivers  which  were  navigable  in  the  tenth  century  (because  we  know 
that  the  Northmen  traversed  them  in  vessels  which  had  crossed  the 
German  Ocean)  but  are  now  too  shallow  to  let  a  rowboat  pass  is  to  be 
found  in  the  destruction  of  the  forests  and  the  draining  of  the  marshes 
which  the  forests  shelter. 


30 


mPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


distance  the  site  of  a  f  armsteading  or  a  store  by  the  waving 
tops  of  the  gmn-trees.  If  this  goes  on  these  Australian 
immigrants  will  sensibly  affect  the  aspect  of  the  country, 
just  as  already  they  have  affected  that  of  the  Ri\'iera  in 
southeastern  France,  of  the  Campagna  of  Rome,  of  the  roll- 
ing tops  of  the  Nilghiri  Hills  in  southern  India,  from 
which,  unhappily,  the  far  more  beautiful  ancient  groves 
("sholas")  have  now  almost  disappeared.  Besides  those 
gums,  another  Australian  tree,  the  thin-foliaged  and  un- 
lovely, but  quick-growing  "beefwood,"  has  been  largely 
planted  at  Kimberley  and  some  other  places.  The  stone- 
pine  of  southern  Europe,  the  cluster-pine  (Pinus  Pinaster), 
and  the  Aleppo  or  Jerusalem  pine  {Pinm  Halepensis)  have 
aU  been  introduced  and  seem  to  do  weU.  The  Australian 
wattles  have  been  found  very  usefid  in  helping  to  fix  the 
soil  on  sandy  flats,  such  as  those  near  Cape  Town,  and  the 
bark  of  one  species  is  an  important  article  of  commerce  in 
Natal,  where  (near  Maritzburg,  for  instance)  it  grows  pro- 
fusely. But  of  all  the  immigrant  trees  none  is  so  beautiful 
as  the  oak.  The  Dutch  began  to  plant  it  round  Cape  Town 
early  in  the  eighteenth  century,  and  it  is  now  one  of  the 
elements  which  most  contribute  to  the  charm  of  the  scenery 
in  this  eminently  picturesque  southwest  corner  of  the 
country.  Nothing  can  be  more  charming  than  the  long 
oak  avenues  which  line  the  streets  of  SteUenbosch,  for  in- 
stance ;  and  they  help,  with  the  old-fashioned  Dutch  houses 
of  that  quaint  Httle  town,  to  give  a  sort  of  Hobbema  flavor 
to  the  foregrounds. 

The  changes  which  man  has  produced  in  the  aspect  of 
countries,  by  the  trees  he  plants  and  the  crops  he  sows, 
are  a  curious  subject  for  inquiry  to  the  geographer  and 
the  historian.  These  changes  sometimes  take  place  very 
rapidly.  In  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  for  instance,  discovered 


VEGETATION 


31 


by  Captain  Cook  little  more  than  a  century  ago,  many  of 
the  shrubs  which  most  abound  and  give  its  tone  to  the 
landscape  have  come  (and  that  mostly  not  by  planting 
but  spontaneously)  from  the  shores  of  Asia  and  America 
within  the  last  eighty  years.  In  Egypt  most  of  the  trees 
which  fiU  the  eye  in  the  drive  from  Cairo  to  the  Pyramids 
were  introduced  by  Mehemet  Ali,  so  that  the  banks  of  the 
Nile,  as  we  see  them,  are  different  not  only  from  those 
which  Herodotus,  but  even  from  those  which  Napoleon 
saw.  In  North  Africa  the  Central  American  prickly-pear 
and  the  Australian  gum  make  the  landscape  quite  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  Carthaginian  or  even  of  Roman  times. 
So  South  Africa  is  changing— changing  aU  the  more  be- 
cause many  of  the  immigrant  trees  thrive  better  than  the 
indigenous  ones  and  are  fit  for  spots  where  the  latter 
make  but  little  progress;  and  in  another  century  the 
country  may  wear  an  aspect  quite  unlike  that  which  it 
now  presents. 


CHAPTER  V 


PHYSICAL  ASPECTS  OF  THE  YAEIOUS  POLITICAL 
DIVISIONS 

HITHERTO  we  have  spoken  of  South  Africa  as  a 
natural  whole,  ignoring  its  artificial  division  into 
colonies  and  states.  It  may  be  well  to  complete  the  ac- 
count of  the  physical  characteristics  of  the  country  by 
gi^dng  the  reader  some  notion  of  the  aspects  of  each  of 
the  political  di\dsions,  and  thereby  a  notion  also  of  their 
relative  importance  and  resoxu'ces  as  wealth-producing 
regions. 

CAPE  COLONY 

Cape  Colony  is  a  huge  territory,  more  than  twice  as  large 
as  the  United  Kingdom.  But  very  little  of  it  is  available  for 
tillage,  and  much  of  it  is  too  ai'id  even  for  stock-keeping. 
The  population,  including  natives,  is  only  seven  to  the 
square  mile.  Nearly  the  whole  of  it  is  high  country.  All 
along  its  westerly  coast  and  its  southerly  coast  there  is  a 
strip  of  low  ground  bordering  the  ocean,  which  in  some 
places  is  but  a  mile  or  two  wide,  and  in  others,  where  a 
broad  valley  opens,  spreads  backward,  gi\'ing  thirty  or 
forty  square  miles  of  tolerably  level  or  undulating  ground. 
The  rich  wine  and  corn  district  roimd  Stelleubosch  and 

32 


PHYSICAL  ASPECTS 


33 


Paarl  and  northward  toward  Malmesbury  is  snch.  a  tract. 
Behind  this  low  strip  the  country  rises,  sometimes  in  steep 
acclivities,  up  which  a  road  or  railway  has  to  be  carried  in 
curves  and  zigzags,  sometimes  in  successive  terraces,  the 
steps,  so  to  speak,  by  which  the  lofty  interior  breaks  down 
toward  the  sea. 

Behind  these  terraces  and  slopes  lies  the  great  table- 
land described  in  a  preceding  chapter.  Though  I  call  it  a 
table-land,  it  is  by  no  means  flat,  for  several  long  though 
not  lofty  ranges  of  hills,  mostly  running  east  and  west,  in- 
tersect it.  Some  tracts  are  only  2000  feet,  others  as  much 
as  5000  feet,  above  the  sea,  while  the  highest  hilltops 
approach  8000  feet.  The  part  of  this  high  country  which 
lies  between  longitude  20°  and  25°  E.,  with  the  Nieuwveld 
and  Sneeuwberg  mountains  to  the  north  of  it,  and  the 
Zwarte  Berg  to  the  south,  is  called  the  Great  Karroo. 
(The  word  is  Hottentot,  and  means  a  dry  or  bare  place.) 
It  is  tolerably  level,  excessively  dry,  with  no  such  thing  as 
a  running  stream  over  its  huge  expanse  of  three  hundred 
miles  long  and  half  as  much  wide,  nor,  indeed,  any  mois- 
ture, save  in  a  few  places  shallow  pools  which  almost  dis- 
appear in  the  dry  season.  The  rainfall  ranges  from  five 
to  fifteen  inches  in  the  year.  It  is  therefore  virtually  a 
desert,  bearing  no  herbage  (except  for  a  week  or  two  after 
a  rain-storm)  and  no  trees,  though  there  are  plenty  of 
prickly  shrubs  and  small  bushes,  some  of  these  succulent 
enough,  when  they  sprout  after  the  few  showers  that  fall 
in  the  summer,  to  give  good  browsing  to  sheep  and  goats. 
The  brilUancy  of  the  air,  the  warmth  of  the  days,  and  the 
coldness  of  the  nights  remind  one  who  traverses  the  Kar- 
roo of  the  deserts  of  western  America  between  the  Rocky 
Mountains  and  the  Sierra  Nevada,  though  the  soil  is  much 
less  alkaline,  and  the  so-caUed  "  sage-brush  "  plants  charac- 

3 


34 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


teristic  of  an  alkaline  district  are  mostly  absent.  To  the 
north  of  the  Karroo  and  of  the  mountains  which  bound 
it,  a  similar  district,  equally  arid,  dreary,  and  barren, 
stretches  away  to  the  banks  of  the  Orange  River,  which 
here  in  its  lower  course  has  less  water  than  in  its  upper 
course,  because,  like  the  NUe,  it  receives  no  affluents  and 
is  wasted  by  the  terrible  sun.  In  fact,  one  may  say  that 
from  the  mountains  dividing  the  southern  part  of  the 
Karroo  from  the  coast  lands  all  the  way  north  to  the 
Orange  River,  a  distance  of  nearly  four  hundred  miles, 
natui'e  has  made  the  country  a  desert  of  clay  and  stone 
(seldom  of  sand),  though  man  has  here  and  there  tried  to 
redeem  it  for  habitation. 

The  northeastern  part  of  the  interior  of  Cape  Colony  is 
more  generally  elevated  than  the  southwestern.  From 
Graaf-Reinet  northward  to  Kimberley  and  Mafeking,  and 
northeastward  to  the  borders  of  Basutoland,  the  country 
is  4000  feet  or  more  above  sea-level ;  much  of  it  is  nearly 
level,  and  almost  all  of  it  bare  of  wood.  It  is  better 
watered  than  the  western  districts,  enjoying  a  rainfall  of 
from  ten  to  twenty-five  inches  in  the  year,  and  therefore 
much  of  it  is  covered  with  grass  after  the  rains,  and  not 
merely  with  dry,  thorny  bushes.  Nevertheless,  its  general 
aspect  in  the  dry  season  is  so  parched  and  bare  that  the 
stranger  is  siu'prised  to  be  told  that  it  supports  great 
quantities  of  cattle,  sheep,  and  goats.  The  southeast- 
ern part,  including  the  Quathlamba  Range  and  the 
hilly  country  descending  from  that  range  to  the  sea, 
has  a  stiU  heavier  raiufall  and  is  in  some  places  cov- 
ered with  forest.  Here  the  grass  is  richer,  and  in  the 
valleys  there  is  plenty  of  land  fit  for  tUlage  without  irri- 
gation. 


PHYSICAL  ASPECTS 


35 


THE  COLONY  OF  NATAL 


Much  smaller,  but  more  favored  by  nature,  is  the  British 
colony  of  Natal,  which  adjoins  the  easternmost  part  of 
Cape  Colony,  whUe  still  farther  east  lies  the  British  ter- 
ritory of  Zulxiland.  Both  districts  resemble  in  their 
physical  conditions  the  southeastern  corner  of  Cape 
Colony.  Both  lie  entirely  on  the  sea  slope  of  the  Quath- 
lamba  Range,  and  are  covered  by  mountains  and  hUls 
descending  from  that  range.  Both  are  hilly  or  undu- 
lating, with  a  charming  variety  of  surface ;  and  they  are 
also  comparatively  well  watered,  with  a  perennial  stream  in 
every  valley.  Hence  there  is  plenty  of  grass,  and  toward 
the  coast  plenty  of  wood  also,  whUe  the  loftier  interior  is 
bare.  The  climate  is  much  warmer  than  that  of  Cape 
Colony,  and  in  the  little  low  strip  which  borders  the  sea 
becomes  almost  tropical.  Nor  is  this  heat  attributable 
entirely  to  the  latitude.  It  is  largely  due  to  the  great 
Mozambique  current,  which  brings  down  from  the  tropical 
parts  of  the  Indian  Ocean  a  vast  body  of  warm  water  which 
heats  the  adjoining  coast  just  as  the  Gulf  Stream  heats  the 
shores  of  Georgia  and  the  CaroHnas ;  and  the  effect  of  this 
mass  of  hot  water  warming  the  air  over  it  would  doubtless 
be  felt  much  more  in  Natal,  were  it  not  for  the  rapid  rise 
of  the  ground  from  the  sea  in  that  colony.  Pietermaritz- 
burg,  the  capital,  is  only  some  fifty  miles  from  the  coast 
as  the  crow  flies.  But  though  it  lies  in  a  valley,  it  is  2225 
feet  above  sea-level,  and  from  it  the  country  steadily  rises 
inland,  tUl  at  Laing's  Nek,  the  watershed  between  the 
Indian  Ocean  and  the  Atlantic,  the  height  of  5300  feet  is 
reached,  and  the  winter  cold  is  severe.   Nearly  the  whole 


36 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  APRICA 


of  Natal  and  four  fifths  of  Zululand  may  thus  be  deemed 
a  temperate  country,  where  Europeans  can  thrive  and  mul- 
tiply. So  far  as  soil  goes  it  is  one  of  the  richest  as  well 
as  one  of  the  fairest  parts  of  South  Africa. 


GERMAN  SOUTHWEST  AFRICA 


Very  different  is  the  vast  German  territory  (322,000 
square  mUes)  which  stretches  northward  from  Cape  Colony, 
bounded  on  the  south  by  the  Orange  River,  on  the  north 
by  the  West  African  territories  of  Portugal,  on  the  east 
by  Bechuanaland.  Great  Namaqualand  and  Damaraland 
constitute  an  enormous  wilderness,  very  thinly  peopled, 
because  the  means  of  hie  are  very  scanty.  This  wilderness 
is,  except  the  narrow  and  sandy  coast  strip,  a  high  country 
(3000  to  4500  feet  above  sea-level)  and  a  dry  country,  drier 
even  than  the  Karroo,  and  far  too  dry  for  any  kind  of  culti- 
vation. Some  parts,  especially  those  in  the  southwest,  are 
hopelessly  parched  and  barren ;  others  have  small  bushes 
or  grass ;  while  on  the  higher  grounds  and  generally  in 
the  far  northern  parts,  where  the  Ovampo  tribe  dwell, 
grass  is  abundant,  and  as  cattle  can  thrive,  there  is  also 
population.  Copper  has  been  discovered  in  considerable 
quantities,  and  other  minerals  (including  coal)  are  beUeved 
to  exist.  But  the  country,  taken  all  in  aU,  and  excepting 
the  little-explored  districts  of  the  northeast,  toward  the 
Upper  Zambesi,— districts  whose  resources  are  still  very 
imperfectly  known,— is  a  dreary  and  desolate  region, 
which  seems  likely  to  prove  of  little  value.  Germany 
now  owns  the  whole  of  it,  save  the  port  of  Walfish  Bay, 
which  has  been  retained  for  and  is  administered  by  Cape 
Colony. 


PHYSICAL  ASPECTS 


37 


PORTUGUESE  SOUTHEAST  AFRICA 

On  the  opposite  side  of  the  continent  Portugal  holds  the 
country  which  lies  along  the  Indian  Ocean  from  Zululand 
northward  to  the  Zambesi.  Close  to  the  sea  it  is  level, 
rising  gently  westward  in  hills,  and  in  some  places  ex- 
tending to  the  crest  of  the  Quathlamba  Mountains.  Thus 
it  has  considerable  variety  of  aspect  and  climate,  and  as 
the  rain  faUs  chiefly  on  the  slopes  of  the  mountains,  the 
interior  is  generally  better  watered  than  the  flat  seaboard, 
which  is  often  sandy  and  worthless.  Much  of  this  region 
is  of  great  fertility,  capable  of  producing  aU  the  fruits  of 
the  tropics.  But  much  of  it,  including  some  of  the  most 
fertile  parts,  is  also  very  malarious,  while  the  heat  is  far  too 
great  for  European  labor.  When  plantations  are  estab- 
lished throughout  it,  as  they  have  been  in  a  few — but  only 
a  few— spots  by  the  Portuguese,  it  will  be  by  natives  that 
they  will  be  cidtivated.  The  Kafir  population  is  now  com- 
paratively small,  but  this  is  due  quite  as  much  to  the  deso- 
lating native  wars  as  to  the  conditions  of  the  soil. 

So  much  for  the  four  maritime  countries.  There  remain 
the  two  Dutch  republics  and  the  British  territories  which 
have  not  yet  been  formed  into  colonies. 

THE  ORANGE  FREE  STATE 

The  Orange  Free  State  (48,000  square  miles)  lies  entirely 
on  the  great  plateau,  between  4000  and  5000  feet  above  sea- 
level.  It  is  in  the  main  a  level  country,  though  hills  are 
scattered  over  it,  sometimes  reaching  a  height  of  nearly 
6000  feet.  A  remarkable  feature  of  most  of  these  hills,  as 
of  many  all  over  the  plateau,  is  that  they  are  flat-topped,  and 
have  often  steep,  even  craggy,  escarpments.  This  seems  due 


38 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


to  the  fact  that  the  strata  (chiefly  sandstone)  are  horizontal, 
and  very  often  a  bed  of  hard  igneous  rock,  some  kind  of 
trap  or  greenstone  or  porphyry,  protects  the  summit  of  the 
hill  from  the  disintegrating  influences  of  the  weather.  It 
is  a  bare  land,  with  very  little  wood,  and  that  small  and 
scrubby,  but  is  well  covered  with  herbage,  affording  ex- 
cellent pasture  during  two  thirds  of  the  year.  After  the 
first  rains,  when  these  wide  stretches  of  gently  undidating 
land  are  dressed  in  their  new  vesture  of  biiUiant  green, 
nothing  can  be  imagined  more  exhilarating  than  a  ride 
across  the  wide  expanse ;  for  the  air  is  pure,  keen,  and 
bracing,  much  like  that  of  the  high  prairies  of  Colorado 
or  Wyoming.  There  are,  fortunately,  no  blizzards,  but 
violent  thunder-storms  are  not  uncommon,  and  the  hail- 
stones—I  have  seen  them  as  big  as  bantams'  eggs— which 
fall  during  such  storms  sometimes  kill  the  smaller  animals, 
and  even  men.  Dry  as  the  land  appears  to  the  eye  during 
the  winter,  the  larger  streams  do  not  wholly  fail,  and 
water  can  generally  be  got.  The  southeastern  part  of 
the  Free  State,  especially  along  the  Caledon  River,  is  ex- 
tremely fertUe,  one  of  the  best  corn-growing  parts  of 
Africa.  The  rest  is  fitter  for  pasture  than  for  tUlage,  ex- 
cept, of  course,  on  the  alluvial  banks  of  the  rivers,  and 
nearly  the  whole  region  is,  in  fact,  occupied  by  huge  graz- 
ing farms.  As  such  a  farm  needs  and  supports  only  a  few 
men,  the  population  grows  but  slowly.  The  Free  State  is 
nearly  as  big  as  England  and  just  as  big  as  the  State  of 
New  York ;  but  it  has  only  77,000  white  inhabitants  and 
about  130,000  natives. 


THE  SOUTH  AFRICAN  REPUBLIC 


Somewhat  larger— about  as  large  as  Great  Britain  and 
nearly  two  thirds  the  size  of  France— is  the  South  African 


PHYSICAL  ASPECTS 


39 


Republic,  which  we  commonly  talk  of  as  the  Transvaal. 
Of  its  white  population,  which  numbers  some  170,000,  two 
thirds  are  in  the  small  mining  district  of  the  Witwatersrand. 
All  the  Transvaal,  except  a  strip  on  the  eastern  and  another 
strip  on  the  northern  border  along  the  river  Limpopo, 
also  belongs  to  the  great  plateau  and  exhibits  the  charac- 
teristic features  of  the  plateau.  The  hills  are,  however, 
higher  than  in  the  Free  State,  and  along  the  east,  where 
the  Quathlamba  Range  forms  the  outer  edge  of  the  plateau, 
they  deserve  to  be  called  mountains,  for  some  of  them  reach 
7000  feet.  These  high  regions  are  healthy,  for  the  stimmer 
heats  are  tempered  by  easterly  breezes  and  copious  sum- 
mer rains.  The  lower  parts  lying  toward  the  Indian 
Ocean  and  the  Limpopo  River  are  feverish,  though  drain- 
age and  cultivation  may  be  expected  to  reduce  the  malaria 
and  improve  the  conditions  of  health.  Like  the  Free  State, 
the  Transvaal  is  primarily  a  pasture-land,  but  in  many  parts 
the  herbage  is  less  juicy  and  wholesome  than  in  the  smaller 
republic,  and  belongs  to  what  the  Dutch  Boers  call  "  sour 
veldt."  There  are  trees  in  the  more  sheltered  parts,  but, 
except  in  the  lower  valleys,  they  are  small,  and  of  no  eco- 
nomic value.  The  winter  cold  is  severe,  and  the  fierce  sun 
dries  up  the  soil  and  makes  the  grass  sear  and  brown  for 
the  greater  part  of  the  year.  Strong  winds  sweep  over  the 
vast  stretches  of  open  upland,  checked  by  no  belts  of  forest. 
It  is  a  country  whose  aspect  has  little  to  attract  the  settler. 
No  one  would  think  it  worth  fighting  for  so  far  as  the  sur- 
face goes ;  and  untU  fourteen  years  ago  nobody  knew  that 
there  was  anything  worth  having  below  the  surface. 


BRITISH  TERRITORIES— BECHUANALAND 


Of  one  of  the  British  territories  outside  the  two  colonies, 
viz.,  Zululand,  I  have  already  spoken ;  of  another,  Basuto- 


40 


DIPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


land,  I  shall  have  to  speak  fully  hereafter.  A  third,  Bechu- 
analand,  including  the  Kalahari  Desert,  is  of  vast  extent, 
but  slender  value.  It  is  a  level  land  lying  entirely  on  the 
plateau  between  3000  and  4000  feet  above  the  sea,  and 
"while  some  of  its  streamlets  drain  into  the  Limpopo  and 
so  to  the  Indian  Ocean,  others  flow  westward  and  north- 
ward into  mai'shes  and  shallow  lakes,  in  which  they  dis- 
appear. One  or  two,  however,  succeed,  in  wet  seasons,  in 
getting  as  far  as  the  Orange  River,  and  find  through  it  an 
outlet  to  the  sea.  It  is  only  in  the  wet  season  that  the 
streamlets  flow,  for  Bechuanaland  is  intensely  dry.  I 
traveled  four  hundred  mUes  through  it  without  once  cross- 
ing running  water,  though  here  and  there  in  traversing 
the  dry  bed  of  a  brook  one  was  told  that  there  was  water 
underneath,  deep  in  the  sand.  Notwithstanding  this  super- 
ficial aridity,  eastern  Bechuanaland  is  deemed  one  of  the 
best  ranching  tracts  in  South  Africa,  for  the  grass  is  sweet, 
and  water  can  usually  be  obtained  by  digging,  though  it 
is  often  brackish.  There  is  also  plenty  of  wood— rather 
thin,  seldom  tall,  and  extremely  thorny,  but  sufficiently 
abundant  to  diversify  the  aspect  of  what  would  otherwise 
be  a  most  dreary  and  monotonous  region. 

THE  TERRITORIES  OF  THE  BRITISH  SOUTH  AFRICA  COMPAOT 

North  of  Bechuanaland  and  the  Transvaal,  and  stretch- 
ing all  the  way  to  the  Zambesi,  are  those  immense  terri- 
tories which  have  been  assigned  to  the  British  South  Africa 
Company  as  the  sphere  of  its  operations,  and  to  which  the 
name  of  Rhodesia  has  been  given.  Matabililand  and 
Mashonaland,  the  only  parts  that  have  been  at  all  settled, 
are  liigher,  more  undulating,  and  altogether  more  attractive 
than  Bechuanaland,  with  great  sweUing  downs  somewhat 


PHYSICAL  ASPECTS 


41 


resembling  the  steppes  of  southern  Russia  or  the  prairies 
of  Kansas.  Except  in  the  east  and  southeast,  the  land  is 
undulating  rather  than  hilly,  but  in  the  south,  toward  the 
Transvaal,  lies  a  high  region,  fvdl  of  small  rocky  heights 
often  clothed  with  thick  bush— a  country  diflficult  to  trav- 
erse, as  has  been  found  during  the  recent  native  outbreak ; 
for  it  is  here  that  the  Kafirs  have  taken  shelter  and  been 
found  difficult  to  dislodge.  Northward  the  land  sinks  to- 
ward the  Zambesi,  and  the  soil,  which  among  the  hills  is 
thin  or  sandy,  becomes  deeper.  In  that  part  and  along  the 
river  banks  there  are  great  possibilities  of  agricultural 
development,  while  the  uplands,  where  the  subjacent  rock 
is  granite  or  gneiss,  with  occasional  beds  of  slate  or  schist, 
are  generally  barer  and  more  dry,  fit  rather  for  pasture 
than  for  tillage.  More  rain  falls  than  in  Bechuaualand, 
so  it  is  only  at  the  end  of  the  dry  season,  in  October,  that 
the  grass  begins  to  fail  on  the  pastures.  The  climate, 
though  very  warm,— for  here  we  are  well  within  the 
tropics,— is  pleasant  and  invigorating,  for  nowhere  do 
brighter  and  fresher  breezes  blow,  and  the  heat  of  the 
afternoons  is  forgotten  in  the  cool  evenings.  It  is  health- 
ful, too,  except  along  the  swampy  river  banks  and  where 
one  descends  to  the  levels  of  the  Zambesi. 

The  reader  will  have  gathered  from  this  general  sketch 
that  there  are  no  natural  boundaries  severing  from  one 
another  the  various  political  divisions  of  South  Africa. 
The  northeastern  part  of  Cape  Colony  is  substantially  the 
same  kind  of  country  as  the  Orange  Free  State  and  eastern 
Bechuanaland ;  the  Transvaal,  or  at  least  three  fourths  of 
its  area,  is  physically  similar  to  the  Free  State,  while  Mata- 
bUiland  and  Mashonaland  present  features  resembling 
those  of  the  northern  Transvaal,  differing  only  in  being 
rather  hotter  and  rather  better  watered.    So  far  as  nature 


42 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


is  concerned,  tlie  conditions  slie  prescribes  for  the  life  of 
man,  the  resources  she  opens  to  his  energies,  are  very  sim- 
ilar over  these  wide  areas,  save,  of  course,  that  some  parts 
are  much  richer  than  others  in  mineral  deposits.  It  is 
only  along  the  frontier  Une  which  divides  Natal  and  the 
Portuguese  dominions  from  the  Transvaal  and  the  terri- 
tories of  the  British  South  Africa  Company  that  a  poHtical 
coincides  with  a  physical  line  of  demarcation.  Even  Ger- 
man Southwest  Africa  differs  little  from  the  Kalahari 
Desert,  which  adjoins  it  and  which  forms  the  western  part 
of  Bechuanaland,  and  differs  little  also  from  the  north- 
western regions  of  Cape  Colony.  In  other  words,  the 
causes  which  have  cut  up  South  Africa  into  its  present 
colonies  and  states  have  been  (except  as  regards  Natal  and 
the  Portuguese  dominions)  historical  causes  rather  than 
differences  due  to  the  hand  of  nature. 


CHAPTER  VI 


NATURE  AND  HISTORY 

NOW  that  some  general  idea  of  how  nature  has  shaped 
and  molded  South  Africa  has  been  conveyed  to  the 
reader,  a  few  pages  may  be  devoted  to  considering  what 
influence  on  the  fortunes  of  the  country  and  its  inhabi- 
tants has  been  exerted  by  its  physical  character.  The 
history  of  every  country  may  be  regarded  as  the  joint  re- 
sult of  three  factors— the  natural  conditions  of  the  country 
itself,  the  qualities  of  the  races  that  have  occupied  it,  and 
the  circumstances  under  which  their  occupation  took  place. 
And  among  savage  or  barbarous  peoples  natural  con- 
ditions have  an  even  greater  importance  than  they  have 
in  more  advanced  periods  of  civilization,  because  they  are 
more  powerful  as  against  man.  Man  in  his  savage  state 
is  not  yet  able  to  resist  such  conditions  or  to  turn  them  to 
serve  his  purposes,  but  is  condemned  to  submit  to  the 
kind  of  life  which  they  prescribe. 

This  was  the  case  with  the  first  inhabitants  of  South 
Africa.  They  seem  to  have  entered  it  as  savages,  and 
savages  they  remained.  Nature  was  strong  and  stern ;  she 
spread  before  them  no  such  rich  alluvial  plains  as  tempted 
cultivation  in  the  valleys  of  the  NUe  and  the  Euphrates. 
Intellectually  feeble,  and  without  the  patience  or  the  f ore- 

43 


44 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


sight  to  attempt  to  till  the  soil  in  a  land  where  droughts 
are  frequent  and  disastrous,  the  Bushmen  were  content 
with  killing  game  and  the  Hottentots  with  living  on  the 
milk  of  their  cattle.  Such  a  life,  which  was  one  of  un- 
certainty and  often  of  hardship,  permitted  no  accumula- 
tion of  wealth,  gave  no  leisure,  suggested  no  higher  want 
than  that  of  food,  and  was  in  all  respects  unfavorable 
to  material  progress.  Even  the  Kafirs,  who  came  later 
and  were  more  advanced,  carrying  on  some  little  cultiva- 
tion of  the  soil,  remained  at  a  low  level.  Nature  gave 
them,  except  in  dry  years,  as  much  com  as  they  needed 
in  return  for  very  little  labor.  Clothing  they  did  not  need, 
and  their  isolation  from  the  rest  of  the  world  left  them 
ignorant  of  luxuries.  When  the  European  voyagers  found 
them  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  they  were  mak- 
ing little  or  no  advance  in  the  arts  of  life. 

Upon  the  growth  of  European  settlements  the  influence 
of  the  physical  structure  of  the  country  has  been  very 
marked.  When  the  Portuguese  had  followed  the  long 
line  of  coast  from  the  mouth  of  the  Orange  River  to  that 
of  the  Zambesi,  and  from  the  mouth  of  the  Zambesi  north- 
ward to  Zanzibar,  they  settled  only  where  they  heard  that 
gold  and  ivory  could  be  obtained.  Their  forts  and  trading 
stations,  the  first  of  which  dates  from  1505,  were  therefore 
planted  on  the  coast  northward  from  the  Limpopo  River. 
Sofala,  a  little  south  of  the  modern  port  of  Beira,  was  the 
principal  one.  Here  they  traded,  and  twice  or  thrice  they 
made,  always  in  search  of  the  gold-producing  regions,  ex- 
peditions inland.  These  expeditions,  however,  had  to  trav- 
erse the  flat  and  malarious  strip  of  ground  which  Ues  along 
the  Indian  Ocean.  A  large  part  of  the  white  troops  died, 
and  the  rest  arrived  at  the  higher  ground  so  much  weakened 
that  they  could  achieve  no  permanent  conquests,  for  they 


NATURE  AND  HISTORY 


46 


were  opposed  by  warlike  tribes.  In  tlie  course  of  years  a 
small  population  speaking  Portuguese,  though  mixed  with 
native  blood,  grew  up  along  the  coast.  The  climate,  how- 
ever, destroyed  what  vigor  the  whites  had  brought  from 
Europe,  and  by  degrees  they  ceased  even  to  attempt  to 
conquer  or  occupy  the  interior.  The  heat  and  the  rains, 
together  with  fever,  the  offspring  of  heat  and  rains, 
checked  further  progress.  Three  centuries  passed,  during 
which  the  knowledge  of  southeastern  Africa  which  the 
civilized  world  had  obtained  within  twenty  years  after  the 
time  of  Vasco  de  Gama  was  scarcely  increased. 

During  those  three  centuries  America,  which  had  not 
been  discovered  till  six  years  after  Bartholomew  Diaz 
passed  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  had  been,  aU  except  a  part 
of  the  northwest,  pretty  thoroughly  explored  and  parti- 
tioned out  among  five  European  powers.  Large  and  pros- 
perous colonies  had  sprung  up,  and  before  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century  one  great  independent  state  had  estab- 
lished itself.  The  discovery  of  Australia  and  New  Zealand 
came  much  later  than  that  of  America,  but  within  one 
century  from  the  first  European  settlement  in  Australia 
(a.  d.  1787)  the  whole  continent,  though  its  interior  is  un- 
inviting, had  been  traversed  along  many  lines,  and  five 
prosperous  European  colonies  had  grown  to  importance. 
The  slow  progress  of  exploration  and  settlement  in  South 
Africa  during  so  long  a  period  is  therefore  a  noteworthy 
phenomenon  which  deserves  a  few  observations. 

As  regards  the  Portuguese  part  of  the  East  African 
coast,  the  explanation  just  given  is  sufficient.  As  regards 
that  part  of  the  west  coast  which  lies  south  of  the  Portu- 
guese colony  of  Angola,  the  natural  features  of  the  country 
make  no  explanation  necessary.  No  more  arid  or  barren 
coast  is  to  be  found  anywhere,  and  in  its  whole  long  stretch 


46 


mPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


there  is  but  one  tolerable  port,  that  of  Walfish  Bay.  The 
inland  region  is  scarcely  better.  Much  of  it  is  waterless 
and  without  herbage.  No  gold,  nor  ivory,  nor  other  arti- 
cle of  value,  was  obtainable.  Accordingly,  nobody  cared 
to  settle  or  explore,  and  the  land  would  probably  be  still 
lying  unclaimed  had  not  the  settlement  of  Herr  Luderitz 
and  a  vague  desire  for  territorial  expansion  prompted  Ger- 
many to  occupy  it  in  1884. 

The  south  coast,  from  the  Cape  to  the  Tugela  River,  was 
much  more  attractive.  Here  the  climate  was  salubrious, 
the  land  in  many  places  fertile,  and  everywhere  fit  for  sheep 
or  cattle.  Here,  accordingly,  a  small  European  community, 
first  founded  in  1652,  grew  up  and  spread  slowly  eastward 
and  northward  along  the  shore  dm-ing  the  century  and  a 
half  from  its  first  establishment.  The  Dutch  settlers  did 
not  care  to  penetrate  the  interior,  because  the  interior 
seemed  to  offer  little  to  a  farmer.  Behind  the  well- watered 
coast  belt  lay  successive  Hnes  of  steep  mountains,  and  be- 
hind those  mountains  the  desert  waste  of  the  Karroo, 
where  it  takes  six  acres  to  keep  a  sheep.  Accordingly,  it 
was  only  a  few  bold  hunters,  a  few  farmers  on  the  out- 
skirts of  the  little  maritime  colony,  and  a  few  missionaries 
who  cared  to  enter  this  wide  wilderness. 

When  exploration  began,  it  began  from  this  southwest 
corner  of  Africa.  It  began  late.  In  1806,  when  the  British 
took  the  Cape  from  the  Dutch,  few  indeed  were  the  wliite 
men  who  had  penetrated  more  than  one  hundred  mUes 
from  the  coast,  and  the  farther  interior  was  known  only 
by  report.  For  thirty  years  more  progress  was  slow; 
and  it  is  within  our  own  time  that  nearly  all  the  explora- 
tion, and  the  settlement  which  has  followed  quickly  on  the 
heels  of  exploration,  has  taken  place.  Just  sixty  years 
ago  the  Dutch  Boers  passed  ia  their  heavy  wagons  from 


NATURE  AND  HISTORY 


47 


Cape  Colony  to  the  spots  where  Bloemfontein  and  Pre- 
toria now  stand.  In  1854-56  David  Livingstone  made  his 
way  through  Bechuanaland  to  the  falls  of  the  Zambesi  and 
the  west  coast  at  St.  Paul  de  Loanda.  In  1889  the  vast 
territories  between  the  Transvaal  Republic  and  the 
Zambesi  began  to  be  occupied  by  the  Mashonaland  pio- 
neers. All  these  explorers,  all  the  farmers,  missionaries, 
hunters,  and  mining  prospectors,  came  up  into  South  Cen- 
tral Africa  from  the  southwest  extremity  of  the  continent 
over  the  great  plateau.  They  moved  northeastward,  be- 
cause there  was  more  rain,  and  therefore  more  grass  and 
game  in  that  direction  than  toward  the  north.  They  were 
checked  from  time  to  time  by  the  warlike  native  tribes ;  but 
they  were  drawn  on  by  finding  everywhere  a  country  in 
which  Europeans  could  live  and  thrive.  It  was  the  exist- 
ence of  this  high  and  cool  plateau  that  permitted  their 
discoveries  and  encouraged  their  settlement.  And  thus 
the  rich  interior  has  come  to  belong,  not  to  the  Portuguese, 
who  first  laid  hold  of  South  Africa,  but  to  the  races  who  first 
entered  the  plateau  at  the  point  where  it  is  nearest  the  sea, 
the  Dutch  and  the  English.  Coming  a  thousand  miles  by 
land,  they  have  seized  and  colonized  the  country  that  lies 
within  sixty  or  eighty  miles  of  the  ocean  behind  the  Portu- 
guese settlements,  because  they  had  good  healthy  air  to 
breathe  during  all  those  thousand  miles  of  journey,  while 
the  Portuguese,  sunk  among  tropical  swamps,  were  doing 
no  more  than  maintain  their  hold  upon  the  coast,  and  were 
allowing  even  the  few  forts  they  had  established  along  the 
lower  course  of  the  Zambesi  to  crumble  away. 

The  same  natural  conditions,  however,  which  have  made 
the  plateau  healthy,  have  kept  it  sparsely  peopled.  Much 
of  this  high  interior,  whose  settlement  has  occupied  the 
last  sixty  years,  is  a  desert,  unfit,  and  likely  to  be  always 


48 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


unfit,  for  human  habitation.  Even  in  those  parts  which 
are  comparatively  well  watered  the  grazing  for  sheep  and 
cattle  is  so  scanty  during  some  months  of  the  year  that 
farms  are  large,  houses  are  scattered  far  from  one  another, 
and  the  population  remains  extremely  thin.  The  wilder- 
ness of  the  Karroo  cuts  off  Cape  Town  and  its  compara- 
tively populous  neighborhood  from  the  pastoral  districts 
of  the  Orange  Free  State.  Between  these  two  settled  dis- 
tricts there  are  only  a  few  villages,  scattered  at  intervals 
of  many  miles  along  a  line  of  railway  four  hundred  mUes 
in  length.  In  the  Free  State  and  the  Transvaal  the  white 
population  is  extremely  sparse,  save  in  the  mining  re- 
gion of  the  Witwatersrand,  because  ranching  requires  few 
hands,  and  only  a  few  hundred  square  miles  out  of  many 
thousands  have  been  brought  under  cultivation.  Thus, 
while  the  coolness  of  the  climate  has  permitted  Eui-opeans 
to  thrive  in  these  comparatively  low  latitudes,  its  dryness 
has  kept  dowu  their  numbers  and  has  retarded  not  only 
their  political  development,  but  their  progress  in  all  those 
arts  and  pursuits  which  imply  a  tolerably  large  and  varied 
society.  The  note  of  South  African  life,  the  thing  that 
strikes  the  traveler  with  increasing  force  as  he  visits  one 
part  of  the  country  after  another,  is  the  paucity  of  inhabi- 
tants and  the  isolated  life  which  these  inhabitants,  except 
in  six  or  seven  towns,  are  forced  to  lead.  This  is  the 
doing  of  nature.  She  has  not  severed  the  country  into 
distinct  social  or  political  communities  by  any  lines  of 
physical  demarcation,  but  she  has  pro\dded  such  scanty 
means  of  sustenance  that  one  might  almost  call  South 
Africa  a  vast  solitude,  with  a  few  oases  of  population 
dotted  here  and  there  over  it. 


CHAPTER  VII 


ASPECTS  OF  SCENERY 

THE  sketch  I  have  given  of  the  physical  character  of 
South  Africa  will  doubtless  have  conveyed  to  the 
reader  that  the  country  offers  comparatively  little  to  at- 
tract the  lover  of  natural  scenery.  This  impression  is 
true  if  the  sort  of  landscape  we  have  learned  to  enjoy  in 
Europe  and  in  the  eastern  parts  of  the  United  States  be 
taken  as  the  type  of  scenery  which  gives  most  pleasure. 
Variety  of  form,  boldness  of  outline,  the  presence  of  water 
in  lakes  and  rimning  streams,  and,  above  all,  foliage  and 
verdure,  are  the  main  elements  of  beauty  in  those  land- 
scapes ;  whUe  if  any  one  desires  something  of  more  impos- 
ing grandeur,  he  finds  it  in  snow-capped  mountains  like 
the  Alps  or  the  Cascade  Range,  or  in  majestic  crags  such 
as  those  which  tower  over  the  fiords  of  Norway.  But  the 
scenery  of  South  Africa  is  wholly  unlike  that  of  Europe 
or  of  most  parts  of  America.  It  is,  above  aU  things,  a 
dry  land,  a  parched  and  thirsty  land,  where  no  clear  brooks 
murmur  through  the  meadow,  no  cascade  sparkles  from 
the  cliff,  where  mountain  and  plain  alike  are  brown  and 
dusty  except  during  the  short  season  of  the  rains.  And 
being  a  dry  land,  it  is  also  a  bare  land.  Few  are  the  favored 
spots  in  which  a  veritable  forest  can  be  seen ;  for  though 
*  49 


60 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


many  tracts  are  wooded,  the  trees  are  almost  always  thin 
and  stunted.  In  Matabililand,  for  instance,  though  a  great 
part  of  the  surface  is  covered  with  wood,  you  see  no  trees 
forty  feet  high,  and  few  reaching  thirty ;  while  in  the  wil- 
deiTiess  of  the  Kalahari  Desert  and  Damaraland  nothing 
larger  than  a  bush  is  visible  except  the  scraggy  and  thorny 
mimosas. 

These  features  of  South  Africa— the  want  of  water  and 
the  want  of  greenness— are  those  to  which  a  native  of 
western  Europe  finds  it  hardest  to  accustom  himself,  how- 
ever thoroughly  he  may  enjoy  the  brilUant  sun  and  the 
keen,  diy  air  which  go  along  with  them.  And  it  must 
also  be  admitted  that  over  very  large  areas  the  aspects  of 
nature  are  so  uniform  as  to  become  monotonous.  One  may 
travel  eight  hundred  miles  and  see  less  variety  in  the  land- 
scape than  one  would  find  in  one  fourth  of  the  same  dis- 
tance anywhere  in  western  Europe  or  in  America  east  of 
the  Alleghany  Mountains.  The  same  geological  forma- 
tions prevail  over  wide  areas,  and  give  the  same  profile  to 
the  hnitop,  the  same  undulations  to  the  plain,  while  in 
traveling  northward  toward  the  equator  the  flora  seems  to 
change  far  less  between  34°  and  18°  south  latitude  than 
it  changes  in  the  journey  from  Barcelona  to  Havre,  through 
only  half  as  many  degrees  of  latitude. 

There  are,  nevertheless,  several  interesting  bits  of 
scenery  in  South  Africa,  which,  if  they  do  not  of  them- 
selves repay  the  traveler  for  so  long  a  journey,  add  sensibly 
to  his  enjoyment.  The  situation  of  Cape  Town,  with  a 
magnificent  range  of  precipices  rising  behind  it,  a  noble 
bay  in  front,  and  environs  fuU  of  beautiful  avenues  and 
pleasure-grounds,  while  bold  mountain-peaks  close  the 
more  distant  landscape,  is  equaled  by  that  of  few  other 
cities  in  the  world.    Constantinople  and  Naples,  Bombay 


ASPECTS  OF  SCENERY 


51 


and  San  Francisco,  cannot  boast  of  more  perfect  or  more 
varied  prospects.  There  are  some  fine  pieces  of  wood  and 
water  scenery  along  the  south  coast  of  Cape  Colony,  and 
one  of  singular  charm  in  the  adjoining  colony  of  Natal, 
where  the  suburbs  of  Durban,  the  principal  port,  though 
they  lack  the  grandeur  which  its  craggy  heights  give  to 
the  neighborhood  of  Cape  Town,  have,  with  a  warmer  cli- 
mate, a  richer  and  more  tropically  luxuriant  vegetation. 
In  the  great  range  of  mountains  which  runs  some  seven- 
teen hundred  miles  from  Cape  Town  almost  to  the  banks 
of  the  Zambesi,  the  scenery  becomes  striking  in  three  dis- 
tricts only.  One  of  these  is  Basutoland,  a  little  native 
territory  which  lies  just  where  Cape  Colony,  the  Orange 
Free  State,  and  Natal  meet.  Its  peaks  are  the  highest  in 
Africa  south  of  Mount  Kilimandjaro,  for  several  of  them 
reach  11,000  feet.  On  the  southeast  this  mountain-land, 
the  Switzerland  of  South  Africa,  faces  Natal  and  East 
Griqualand  with  a  long  range  of  formidable  precipices, 
impassable  for  many  miles.  The  interior  contains  valleys 
and  glens  of  singular  beauty,  some  wild  and  rugged,  some 
clothed  with  rich  pasture.  The  voice  of  brooks,  a  sound 
rare  in  Africa,  rises  from  the  hidden  depths  of  the  gorges, 
and  here  and  there  torrents  plunging  over  the  edge  of  a 
basaltic  cliff  into  an  abyss  below  make  waterfalls  which 
are  at  all  seasons  beautiful,  and  when  swollen  by  the  rains 
of  January  majestic.  Except  wood,  of  which  there  is  un- 
happily nothing  more  than  a  little  scrubby  bush  in  the 
sheltered  hoUows,  nearly  all  the  elements  of  beauty  are 
present,  and  the  contrast  between  the  craggy  summits  and 
the  soft,  rich  pasture-  and  corn-lands  which  lie  along  their 
northern  base  gives  rise  to  many  admirable  landscapes. 

Two  hundred  miles  north-northeast  of  Basutoland  the 
great  Quathlamba  Range  rises  in  very  bold  slopes  from  the 


62 


mPRESSIOXS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


coast  levels  behind  Delagoa  Bay,  and  the  scenery  of  the 
valleys  and  passes  is  said  to  be  extremely  grand.  Knowing 
it,  however,  only  by  report,  I  will  not  venture  to  describe 
it.  Nearly  five  hundred  miles  stiU  farther  to  the  north,  in 
the  district  called  Manicaland,  already  referred  to,  is  a  third 
mountain  region,  less  lofty  than  Basutoland,  but  deriving 
a  singular  charm  from  the  dignity  and  variety  of  its  moun- 
tain forms.  The  whole  country  is  so  elevated  that  summits 
of  7000  or  even  8000  feet  do  not  produce  any  greater  effect 
upon  the  eye  than  does  Ben  Lomond  as  seen  from  Loch 
Lomond,  or  Mount  Washington  from  the  Glen  House.  But 
there  is  a  boldness  of  line  about  these  granite  peaks  com- 
parable to  those  of  the  west  coast  of  Norway  or  of  the  finest 
parts  of  the  Swiss  Alps.  Some  of  them  rise  in  smooth  shafts 
of  apparently  inaccessible  rock ;  others  form  long  ridges  of 
pinnacles  of  every  kind  of  shape,  specially  striking  when 
they  stand  out  against  the  brilliantly  clear  morning  or 
evening  sky.  The  valleys  are  well  wooded,  the  lower  slopes 
covered  with  herbage,  so  the  effect  of  these  wild  peaks  is 
heightened  by  the  softness  of  the  surroundings  which  they 
dominate,  while  at  the  same  time  the  whole  landscape  be- 
comes more  complex  and  more  noble  by  the  mingling  of 
such  diverse  elements.  No  scenery  better  deserves  the 
name  of  romantic.  And  even  in  the  tamer  parts,  where 
instead  of  mountains  there  are  only  low  hiUs,  or  "kopjes" 
(as  they  are  called  in  South  Africa),  the  slightly  more  friable 
rock  found  in  these  hUls  decomposes  under  the  influence 
of  the  weather  into  curiously  picturesque  and  fantastic 
forms,  with  crags  riven  to  their  base,  and  detached  pillars 
supporting  loose  blocks  and  tabular  masses,  among  or  upon 
which  the  timid  Mashonas  have  biult  their  huts  in  the  hope 
of  escaping  the  raids  of  their  warlike  enemies,  the  MatabUi. 
Though  I  must  admit  that  South  Africa,  taken  as  a  whole, 


ASPECTS  OF  SCENERY 


53 


offers  far  less  to  attract  the  lover  of  natural  beauty  than 
does  southern  or  western  Europe  or  the  Pacific  States  of 
North  America,  there  are  two  kinds  of  charm  which  it  pos- 
sesses in  a  high  degree.  One  is  that  of  color.  Monotonous 
as  the  landscapes  often  are,  there  is  a  warmth  and  richness 
of  tone  about  them  which  fills  and  delights  the  eye.  One 
sees  comparatively  little  of  that  whitish-blue  limestone 
which  so  often  gives  a  hard  and  chilling  aspect  to  the  scen- 
ery of  the  lower  ridges  of  the  Alps  and  of  large  parts  of 
the  coasts  of  the  Mediterranean.  In  Africa  even  the  gray 
granite  or  gneiss  has  a  deeper  tone  than  these  limestones, 
and  it  is  frequently  covered  by  red  and  yellow  lichens  of 
wonderful  beauty.  The  dark  basalts  and  porphyries  which 
occur  in  many  places,  the  rich  red  tint  which  the  surface 
of  the  sandstone  rocks  often  takes  under  the  scorching 
sun,  give  depth  of  tone  to  the  landscape ;  and  though  the 
flood  of  midday  sunshine  is  almost  overpowering,  the  lights 
of  momingand  evening,  touching  the  mountains  with  every 
shade  of  rose  and  crimson  and  violet,  are  indescribably 
beautiful.  It  is  in  these  morning  and  evening  hours  that 
the  charm  of  the  pure,  dry  air  is  specially  felt.  Mountains 
fifty  or  sixty  miles  away  stand  out  clearly  enough  to  enable 
all  the  wealth  of  their  color  and  all  the  delicacy  of  their 
outlines  to  be  perceived;  and  the  eye  realizes,  by  the 
exquisitely  fine  change  of  tint  between  the  nearer  and 
the  more  distant  ranges,  the  immensity  and  the  harmony 
of  the  landscape.  Europeans  may  think  that  the  contin- 
uous profusion  of  sunlight  during  most  of  the  year  may 
become  wearisome.  I  was  not  long  enough  in  the  country 
to  find  it  so,  and  I  observed  that  those  who  have  lived  for 
a  few  years  in  South  Africa  declare  they  prefer  that  con- 
tinuous profusion  to  the  murky  skies  of  Britain  or  Hol- 
land or  North  Germany.    But  even  if  the  fine  weather 


54  IMPRESSIONS  OP  SOUTH  AFRICA 


which  prevails  for  eight  months  in  the  year  be  monot- 
onous, there  is  compensation  in  the  extraordinary  bril- 
liancy of  the  atmospheric  effects  throughout  the  rainy  sea- 
son, and  especially  in  its  first  weeks.  During  nine  days 
which  I  spent  in  the  Transvaal  at  that  season,  when  several 
thunderstorms  occurred  almost  every  day,  the  combina- 
tions of  sunshine,  Ughtning,  and  cloud,  and  the  symphonies 
—if  the  expression  may  be  permitted— of  light  and  shade 
and  color  which  their  changeful  play  produced  in  the  sky 
and  on  the  earth,  were  more  various  and  more  wonderful 
than  a  whole  year  would  furnish  forth  for  enjoyment  in 
most  parts  of  Europe. 

The  other  peculiar  charm  which  South  African  scenery 
possesses  is  that  of  primeval  soHtude  and  silence.  It  is  a 
charm  which  is  differently  felt  by  different  minds.  There 
are  many  who  find  the  presence  of  what  Homer  calls  "the 
rich  works  of  men  "  essential  to  the  perfection  of  a  land- 
scape. Cultivated  fields,  gardens,  and  orchards,  farm- 
houses dotted  here  and  there,  indications  in  one  form  or 
another  of  human  life  and  labor,  do  not  merely  give  a 
greater  variety  to  every  prospect,  but  also  impart  an  ele- 
ment which  evokes  the  sense  of  sympathy  with  our  fellow- 
beings,  and  excites  a  whole  group  of  emotions  which  the 
contemplation  of  nature,  taken  by  itself,  does  not  arouse. 
No  one  is  insensible  to  these  things,  and  some  find  Httle 
deUght  in  any  scene  from  which  they  are  absent.  Yet 
there  are  other  minds  to  which  there  is  something  specially 
solemn  and  impressive  in  the  untouched  and  primitive 
simplicity  of  a  country  which  stands  now  just  as  it  came 
from  the  hands  of  the  Creator.  The  self-sufficingness  of 
nature,  the  insignificance  of  man,  the  mystery  of  a  universe 
which  does  not  exist,  as  our  ancestors  fondly  thought,  for 
the  sake  of  man,  but  for  other  purposes  hidden  from  us 


ASPECTS  OF  SCENERY 


55 


and  forever  undiscoverable— these  things  are  more  fully 
realized  and  more  deeply  felt  when  one  traverses  a  bound- 
less wilderness  which  seems  to  have  known  no  change 
since  the  remote  ages  when  hill  and  plain  and  valley  were 
molded  into  the  forms  we  see  to-day.  Feelings  of  this 
kind  powerfully  affect  the  mind  of  the  traveler  in  South 
Africa.  They  affect  him  in  the  Karroo,  where  the  slender 
line  of  rails,  along  which,  his  train  creeps  all  day  and  all 
night  across  wide  stretches  of  brown  desert  and  under  the 
crests  of  stern,  dark  hills,  seems  to  heighten  by  contrast 
the  sense  of  solitude— a  vast  and  barren  solitude  interposed 
between  the  busy  haunts  of  men  which  he  has  left  behind 
on  the  shores  of  the  ocean  and  those  still  busier  haunts 
whither  he  is  bent,  where  the  pick  and  hammer  sound 
upon  the  Witwatersrand,  and  the  palpitating  engine  drags 
masses  of  ore  from  the  depths  of  the  crowded  mine.  They 
affect  him  still  more  in  the  breezy  highlands  of  MatabUi- 
land,  where  the  eye  ranges  over  an  apparently  endless  suc- 
cession of  undulations  clothed  with  tall  grass  or  waving 
wood,  till  they  sink  in  the  blue  distance  toward  the  plain 
through  which  the  great  Zambesi  takes  its  seaward  course. 

The  wilderness  is  indeed  not  wholly  unpeopled.  Over 
the  wide  surface  of  MatabUiland  and  Mashonaland— an 
area  of  some  two  hundred  thousand  square  miles— there 
are  scattered  natives  of  various  tribes,  whose  numbers  have 
been  roughly  estimated  at  from  250,000  to  400,000  persons. 
But  one  rarely  sees  a  native  except  along  a  few  well-beaten 
tracks,  and  still  more  rarely  comes  upon  a  cluster  of  huts  in 
the  woods  along  the  streamlets  or  half  hidden  among  the 
fissured  rocks  of  a  gi-anite  kopje.  The  chief  traces  of  man's 
presence  in  the  landscape  are  the  narrow  and  winding  foot- 
paths which  run  hither  and  thither  through  the  country, 
and  bewilder  the  traveler  who,  having  strayed  from  his 


56 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


wagon,  vainly  hopes  by  following  tliem  to  find  his  way 
back  to  the  main  track,  or  the  wreaths  of  blue  smoke 
which  indicate  the  spot  where  a  Kafir  has  set  the  grass  on 
fire  to  startle  and  kill  the  tiny  creatures  that  dwell  in  it. 

Nothing  is  at  first  more  surprising  to  one  who  crosses  a 
country  inhabited  by  savages  than  the  few  marks  of  their 
presence  which  strike  the  eye,  or  at  least  an  unpractised 
eye.  The  little  plot  of  ground  the  Kafirs  have  cultivated 
is  in  a  few  years  scarcely  distinguishable  from  the  un- 
touched surface  of  the  surrounding  land,  while  the  mud- 
built  hut  quickly  disappears  under  the  summer  rains  and 
the  scarcely  less  destructive  efforts  of  the  white  ants. 
Here  in  South  Africa  the  native  races  seem  to  have  made 
no  progress  for  centuries,  if,  indeed,  they  have  not  actu- 
ally gone  backward;  and  the  feebleness  of  savage  man 
intensifies  one's  sense  of  the  overmastering  strength  of 
nature.  The  elephant  and  the  buffalo  are  as  much  the 
masters  of  the  soil  as  is  the  Kafir,  and  man  has  no  more 
right  to  claim  that  the  land  was  made  for  him  than  have 
the  wild  beasts  of  the  forest  who  roar  after  their  prey  and 
seek  their  meat  from  God. 

These  features  of  South  African  nature,  its  silence,  its 
loneliness,  its  drear  solemnity,  have  not  been  without  their 
influence  upon  the  mind  and  temper  of  the  European 
settler.  The  most  peculiar  and  characteristic  type  that 
the  country  has  produced  is  the  Boer  of  the  eastern 
plateau,  the  offspring  of  those  Dutch  Africanders  who 
some  sixty  years  ago  wandered  away  from  British  rule 
into  the  wilderness.  These  men  had,  and  their  sons  and 
grandsons  have  retained,  a  passion  for  solitude  that  even 
to-day  makes  them  desire  to  live  many  mUes  from  any 
neighbor,  a  sturdy  self-reliance,  a  grim  courage  in  the  face 
of  danger,  a  sternness  from  which  the  native  races  have 


ASPECTS  OF  SCENEEY 


57 


often  had  to  suffer.  The  majesty  of  nature  has  not  stimu- 
lated in  them  any  poetical  faculty.  But  her  austerity, 
joined  to  the  experiences  of  their  race,  has  contributed  to 
make  them  grave  and  serious,  closely  bound  to  their  an- 
cient forms  of  piety,  and  prone  to  deem  themselves  the 
special  objects  of  divine  protection. 


CHAPTER  Vm 


THE  NATIVES :  HOTTENTOTS,  BUSHMEN,  AND  KAFHIS 

BY  far  the  most  interesting  features  in  the  history  of 
South  Africa  have  been  the  relations  to  one  another 
of  the  various  races  that  inhabit  it.  There  are  seven  of 
these  races,  three  native  and  four  European.  The  Euro- 
pean races,  two  of  them  especially,  the  Dutch  and  the  Eng- 
lish, are,  of  course,  far  stronger,  and  far  more  important 
as  political  factors,  than  are  the  natives.  Nevertheless, 
the  natives  have  an  importance  too,  and  one  so  great  that 
their  position  deserves  to  be  fully  set  forth  and  carefully 
weighed.  For,  though  they  are  inferior  in  every  point 
but  one,  they  are  in  that  point  strong :  they  are  prolific ; 
they  already  greatly  outnumber  the  whites,  and  they  in- 
crease faster. 

The  cases  of  conflict  or  contact  between  civilized  Euro- 
pean man  and  savage  or  semi-civilized  aboriginal  peoples, 
which  have  been  verj'-  numerous  since  the  tide  of  discovery 
began  to  rise  in  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  may  be 
reduced  to  three  classes. 

The  first  of  these  classes  includes  the  cases  where  the 
native  race,  though  perhaps  numerous,  is  comparatively 
weak,  and  unable  to  assimilate  European  civilization,  or 
to  thrive  under  European  rule  (a  rule  which  has  often 

58 


THE  NATIVES 


59 


been  harsh),  or  even  to  survive  in  the  presence  of  a  Euro- 
pean population  occupying  its  country.  To  this  case  be- 
long the  extinction  of  the  natives  of  the  Antilles  by  the 
Spaniards,  the  disappearance  of  the  natives  of  Australia 
and  Tasmania  before  British  settlement,  the  dying  out, 
or  retirement  to  a  few  reserved  tracts,  of  the  aborigines 
who  once  occupied  all  North  America  east  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  The  Russian  advance  iu  Siberia,  the  advance 
of  Spanish  and  Italian  and  German  colonists  in  the  terri- 
tories of  La  Plata  in  South  America,  may  be  added  to 
this  class,  for,  though  the  phenomena  are  rather  those  of 
absorption  than  of  extinction,  the  result  is  practically  the 
same.  The  country  becomes  European  and  the  native 
races  vanish. 

An  opposite  class  of  cases  arises  where  Europeans  have 
conquered  a  country  already  filled  by  a  more  or  less  civi- 
lised population,  which  is  so  numerous  and  so  prolific  as 
to  maintain  itself  with  ease  in  their  presence.  Such  a  case 
is  the  British  conquest  of  India.  The  Europeans  in  India 
are,  and  must  remain,  a  mere  handful  among  the  many 
millions  of  industrious  natives,  who  already  constitute,  in 
many  districts,  a  population  almost  too  numerous  for  the 
resources  of  the  country  to  support.  Moreover,  the  climate 
is  one  in  which  a  pure  European  race  speedily  dwindles 
away.  The  position  of  the  Dutch  in  Java,  and  of  the 
French  in  Indo-China,  is  similar ;  and  the  French  in  Mada- 
gascar will  doubtless  present  another  instance. 

Between  these  two  extremes  lies  a  third  group  of  cases 
—those  in  which  the  native  race  is,  on  the  one  hand, 
numerous  and  strong  enough  to  maintain  itself  in  the  face 
of  Europeans,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  plenty  of 
room  left  for  a  considerable  European  population  to  press 
in,  climatic  conditions  not  forbidding  it  to  spread  and 


60 


mPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFEICA 


multiply.  To  this  group  belong  such  colonizations  as 
those  of  the  Spaniards  in  Mexico  and  Peru,  of  the  Russians 
in  pai'ts  of  Central  Asia,  of  the  French  in  Algeria,  of  the 
Spaniards  in  the  Canary  Isles,  and  of  the  English  and 
Americans  in  Hawaii  In  all  these  countries  the  new  race 
and  the  old  race  can  both  live  and  thrive,  neither  of  them 
killing  off  or  crowding  out  the  other,  though  in  some,  as 
in  Hawaii,  the  natives  tend  to  disappear,  while  in  others, 
as  in  Algeria,  the  immigrants  do  not  much  increase. 
Sometimes,  as  in  the  Canary  Isles  and  Mexico,  the  two 
elements  blend,  the  native  element  being  usually  more 
numerous,  though  less  advanced;  and  a  mixed  race  is 
formed  by  intermarriage.  Sometimes  they  remain,  and 
seem  likely  to  remain,  as  distinct  as  oil  is  from  water. 

South  Africa  belongs  to  this  third  class  of  cases.  The 
Dutch  and  the  English  find  the  country  a  good  one.  There 
is  plenty  of  land  for  them.  They  enjoy  the  climate.  They 
thrive  and  multiply.  But  they  do  not  oust  the  natives, 
except  sometimes  from  the  best  lands,  and  the  contact 
does  not  reduce  the  number  of  the  latter.  The  native— 
that  is  to  say,  the  native  of  the  Kafir  race— not  merely 
holds  his  ground,  but  increases  far  more  rapidly  than  he 
did  before  Europeans  came,  because  the  Eviropeans  have 
checked  intertribal  wars  and  the  slaughter  of  the  tribesmen 
by  the  chiefs  and  their  wizards,  and  also  because  the  Eu- 
ropeans have  opened  up  new  kinds  of  employment.  As, 
therefore,  the  native  will  certainly  remain,  and  wiU,  indeed, 
probably  continue  to  be  in  a  vast  majority,  it  is  vital  to  a 
comprehension  of  South  African  problems  to  know  what 
he  has  been  and  may  be  expected  to  become. 

The  native  races  are  three,  and  the  differences  between 
them  are  marked,  being  differences  not  only  of  physical 
appearance  and  of  language,  but  also  of  character,  habits. 


THE  NATIVES 


61 


and  grade  of  civilization.  These  three  are  the  Bushmen, 
the  Hottentots,  and  those  Bantu  tribes  whom  we  call 
Kafirs. 

The  Bushmen  were,  to  all  appearance,  the  first  on  the 
ground,  the  real  aborigines  of  South  Africa.  They  are 
one  of  the  lowest  races  to  be  found  anywhere,  as  low  as 
the  Fuegians  or  the  "black  fellows"  of  Australia,  though 
perhaps  not  quite  so  low  as  the  Veddahs  of  Ceylon  or  the 
now  extinct  natives  of  Tasmania.  They  seem  to  have 
been  originally  scattered  over  all  South  Africa,  from  the 
Zambesi  to  the  Cape,  and  so  late  as  eighty  years  ago  were 
almost  the  only  inhabitants  of  Basutoland,  where  now 
none  of  them  are  left.  They  were  nomads  of  the  most 
primitive  type,  neither  tilling  the  soil  nor  owning  cattle, 
but  living  on  such  wild  creatures  as  they  could  catch  or 
smite  with  their  poisoned  arrows,  and,  when  these  failed, 
upon  wild  fruits  and  the  roots  of  plants.  For  the  track- 
ing and  trapping  of  game  they  had  a  marvelous  faculty, 
such  as  neither  the  other  races  nor  any  European  could 
equal.  But  they  had  no  organization,  not  even  a  tribal 
one,  for  they  wandered  about  in  small  groups ;  and  no 
rehgion  beyond  some  vague  notion  of  ghosts  and  of 
spirits  inhabiting  or  connected  with  natural  objects ;  while 
their  language  was  a  succession  of  clicks  interrupted  by 
grunts.  Very  low  in  stature,  and  possibly  cognate  to 
the  pygmies  whom  Mr.  H.  M.  Stanley  found  in  Central 
Africa,  they  were  capable  of  enduring  great  fatigue  and 
of  traveling  very  swiftly.  Untamably  fierce  unless  caught 
in  childhood,  and  incapable  of  accustoming  themselves  to 
civilized  life,  driven  out  of  some  districts  by  the  European 
settlers,  who  were  often  forced  to  shoot  them  down  in  self- 
defense,  and  in  other  regions  no  longer  able  to  find  support 
owing  to  the  disappearance  of  the  game,  they  are  now  al- 


62 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


most  extinct,  though  a  few  remain  in  the  Kalahari  Desert 
and  the  adjoining  parts  of  northern  Bechuanaland  and 
"western  Matabililand,  toward  Lake  Ngami.  I  saw  at  the 
Kimberley  mines  two  or  three  dwarf  natives  who  were  said 
to  have  Bushman  blood  in  them,  but  it  is  no  longer  easy 
to  find  in  the  Colony  a  pure  specimen.  Before  many  years 
the  only  trace  of  their  existence  vrUl  be  in  the  remarkable 
drawings  of  wild  animals  with  which  they  delighted  to  cover 
the  smooth  surfaces  of  sheltered  rocks.  These  drawings, 
which  are  found  all  the  way  from  the  Zambesi  to  the  Cape, 
and  from  Manicaland  westward,  are  executed  in  red  and 
yellow  pigments,  and  are  often  full  of  spirit.  Rude,  of 
course,  they  are,  but  they  often  convey  the  aspect,  and 
especially  the  characteristic  attitude,  of  the  animal  with 
great  fidelity. 

The  second  native  race  was  that  which  the  Dutch  called 
Hottentot,  and  whom  the  Portuguese  explorers  found 
occuppng  the  maritime  region  in  the  southwest  corner  of 
the  continent,  to  the  east  and  to  the  north  of  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope.  They  are  supposed  to  have  come  from  the 
north  and  dispossessed  the  Bushmen  of  the  grassy  coast 
lands,  dri\'ing  them  into  the  more  arid  interior.  But  of 
this  there  is  no  evidence :  and  some  have  even  fancied  that 
the  Hottentot  race  itself  may  have  been  a  mixed  one, 
produced  by  intermarriage  between  Bushmen  and  Kafirs. 
Be  this  as  it  may,  the  Hottentots  were  superior  to  the 
Bushmen  both  physically  and  intellectually.  They  were 
small  men,  biit  not  pygmies,  of  a  reddish  or  yellowish 
black  hue,  with  no  great  muscular  power  in  their  slender 
frames.  Their  hair,  very  short  and  woolly,  grew,  hke  that 
of  the  Bushmen,  in  small  balls  or  tufts  over  the  skull, 
just  as  grass-tufts  grow  separate  from  one  another  in  the 
drier  parts  of  the  veldt.    They  possessed  sheep  and  also 


THE  NATIVES 


63 


cattle,  lean  beasts  with  huge  horns ;  and  they  roved  hither 
and  thither  over  the  country  as  they  could  find  pasture 
for  their  animals,  doing  a  little  hunting,  but  not  attempt- 
ing to  till  the  soU,  and  unacquainted  with  the  metals. 
Living  in  tribes  under  their  chiefs,  they  fought  a  little  with 
one  another,  and  a  great  deal  with  the  Bushmen,  who  tried 
to  prey  upon  their  cattle.  They  were  a  thoughtless, 
cheerful,  good-natured,  merry  sort  of  people,  whom  it  was 
not  difficult  to  domesticate  as  servants,  and  their  relations 
with  the  Dutch  settlers,  in  spite  of  two  wars,  were,  on  the 
whole,  friendly.  Within  a  century  after  the  foundation 
of  Cape  Colony,  their  numbers,  never  large,  had  vastly 
diminished,  partly  from  the  occupation  by  the  colonists 
of  their  best  grazing-grounds,  but  stiU  more  from  the 
ravages  of  smallpox  and  other  epidemics,  which  ships 
touching  on  their  way  from  the  East  Indies  brought  into 
the  country.  In  a.  d.  1713  whole  tribes  perished  in  this 
way.  I  speak  of  the  Hottentots  in  the  past  tense,  for  they 
are  now,  as  a  distinct  race,  almost  extinct  in  the  Colony, 
although  a  good  deal  of  their  blood  has  passed  into  the 
mixed  colored  population  of  Cape  Town  and  its  neighbor- 
hood—a population  the  other  elements  of  which  are  Malays 
from  the  Dutch  East  Indies,  and  the  descendants  of  slaves 
brought  from  the  west  coast  of  Africa  in  the  seventeenth 
and  eighteenth  centuries.  From  unions  between  Hotten- 
tot women  and  the  Dutch  sprang  the  mixed  race  whom 
the  Dutch  call  Bastards  and  the  English  Griquas,  and  who, 
though  now  dying  out  like  the  French-and-Indian  half- 
breeds  of  western  Canada,  played  at  one  time  a  consider- 
able part  in  colonial  politics.  Along  the  south  bank  of  the 
Orange  River  and  to  the  north  of  it,  in  Great  Namaqualand, 
small  tribes,  substantially  identical  with  the  Hottentots, 
still  wander  over  the  arid  wilderness.    But  in  the  settled 


64 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


parts  of  the  Colony  the  Hottentot,  of  whom  we  used  to  hear 
so  much,  and  whom  the  Portuguese,  remembering  the  death 
of  the  %dceroy  D' Almeida  (who  was  killed  in  a  skirmish  in 
1510),  at  one  time  feared  so  much,  has  vanished  more  com- 
pletely than  has  the  Red  Indian  from  the  Atlantic  States  of 
North  America.  And  the  extinction  or  absorption  of  the 
few  remaining  nomads  will  probably  foUow  at  no  distant 
date. 

Very  different  have  been  the  fortunes,  very  different 
are  the  prospects,  of  the  third  and  far  more  nirmerous 
South  African  race,  those  whom  we  call  Kafirs,  and  who 
call  themselves  Abantu  or  Bantu  ("the  people").  The 
word  "  Kafir  "  is  Ai-abic.  It  has  nothing  to  do  with  Mount 
Kaf  (the  Caucasus),  but  means  an  infidel  (hteraUy,  "  one 
who  denies"),  and  is  apphed  by  Mussulmans  not  merely 
to  these  people,  but  to  other  heathen  also,  as,  for  instance, 
to  the  idolaters  of  Kafiristan,  in  the  Hindu-Kush  Moun- 
tains. The  Portuguese  doubtless  took  the  name  from  the 
Arabs,  whom  they  found  established  at  several  points  on 
the  East  African  coast  northward  fi'om  Sofala,  and  the 
Dutch  took  it  from  the  Portuguese,  together  with  such 
words  as  "kraal"  (corral)  and  "assagai."  The  Bantu 
tribes,  if  one  may  include  under  that  name  aU  the  blacks 
who  speak  languages  of  the  same  general  tj'pe,  occupy 
the  whole  of  East  Africa  southward  from  the  Upper  XOe, 
where  that  river  issues  from  the  great  Nyanza  lakes,  to- 
gether with  the  Congo  basin  and  most  of  Southwest  Af- 
rica. They  include  various  groups,  such  as  the  Amakosa 
tribes  (to  which  belong  the  Tembus  and  Pondos),  who  oc- 
cupy the  coast  of  Cape  Colony  eastward  from  the  Great 
Fish  River;  the  Amazulu  group,  consisting  of  the  Zulus 
proper  (in  Natal  and  Zululand) ;  the  Swazis ;  the  Matabili, 
farther  to  the  north,  and  the  Angoni,  in  Nyassaland,  be- 


THE  NATIVES 


65 


yond  the  Zambesi  River ;  the  Amatonga  group,  between 
Ziiluland  and  Delagoa  Bay ;  the  Bechuana  group,  includ- 
ing the  Bamangwato,  the  Basutos,  and  the  Barolongs,  as 
well  as  the  Barotse,  far  off  on  the  middle  course  of  the 
Zambesi;  the  Makalaka  or  the  Maholis,  inhabiting  Ma- 
shonaland  and  Manicaland.  The  linguistic  and  ethnical 
affinities  of  these  groups  and  tribes  are  still  very  imper- 
fectly known,  but  their  speech  and  their  habits  are  suffi- 
ciently similar  to  enable  us  to  refer  them  to  one  type,  just 
as  we  do  the  Finnic  or  the  Slavonic  peoples  in  Europe. 
And  they  are  even  more  markedly  unlike  the  Hottentots 
or  the  Bushmen  than  the  Slavs  are  to  the  Finns,  or  both 
of  these  to  those  interesting  aborigines  of  northern  Eu- 
rope, the  Lapps. 

The  Bantu  or  Kafirs— I  use  the  terms  as  synonymous 
— who  dweU  south  of  the  Zambesi  are  usually  strong  and 
weU-made  men,  not  below  the  average  height  of  a  Euro- 
pean. In  color  they  vary  a  good  deal ;  some  are  as  black 
as  a  Gulf  of  Guinea  negro,  some  rather  brown  than  black. 
All  have  the  thick  lips,  the  wooUy  hau-,  and  the  scanty 
beard  of  the  negro,  and  nearly  aU  the  broad,  low  nose; 
yet  in  some  the  nose  is  fairly  high,  and  the  cast  of  features 
suggests  an  admixture  of  Semitic  blood— an  admixture 
which  could  be  easily  explained  by  the  presence,  from  a 
pretty  remote  time,  of  Arab  settlers,  as  weU  as  traders, 
along  the  coast  of  the  Indian  Ocean.  As  the  Bantu  vary  in 
aspect,  so  do  they  also  in  intelligence.  No  tribe  is  in  this 
respect  conspicuously  superior  to  any  other,  though  the 
Zulus  show  more  courage  in  fight  than  most  of  the  others, 
the  Fingos  more  aptitude  for  trade,  the  Basutos  more 
disposition  to  steady  industry.  But,  while  the  general 
level  of  intellect  is  below  that  of  the  Red  Indians  or  the 
Maoris  or  the  Hawaiians  (if  rather  above  that  of  the  Guinea 

6 


66 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


negroes),  individuals  are  now  and  then  found  of  consider- 
able talents  and  great  force  of  character.  Three  such  men 
as  the  Zulu  Tshaka,  the  Basuto  Moshesh,  and  the  Bechuana 
Khama,  not  to  speak  of  those  who,  like  the  eloquent  mis- 
sionary Tiyo  Soga,  have  received  a  regular  European 
education,  are  sufficient  to  show  the  capacity  of  the  race 
for  occasionally  reaching  a  standard  which  white  men 
must  respect.  And  in  one  regard  the  Bantu  race  shows 
a  kind  of  strength  which  the  Red  Indians  and  PoljTiesians 
lack.  They  are  a  very  prolific  people,  and  under  the  condi- 
tions of  peace  which  European  rule  secures  they  multiply 
with  a  rapidity  which  some  deem  alarming. 

How  long  the  various  Bantu  tribes  have  been  in  South 
Africa  is  a  question  on  which  no  light  has  yet  been  thrown, 
or  can,  indeed,  be  expected.  Some  of  them  have  a  vague 
tradition  that  they  came  from  the  north ;  but  the  recol- 
lections of  savages  seldom  go  back  more  than  five  or  six 
generations,  and  retain  little  except  the  exploits  or  the 
genealogy  of  some  conspicuous  chief.  When  the  Portu- 
guese arrived  in  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  they 
found  Kafirs  already  inhabiting  the  country  from  Natal 
northward.  But  apparently  they  did  not  then  extend  as 
far  to  the  west  of  Natal  as  they  do  now,  and  there  is  reason 
to  think  that  considerable  parts  of  the  interior,  such  as  the 
region  which  is  now  the  Orange  Free  State  and  Basutoland, 
were  not  yet  occupied,  but  left  to  the  wandering  Bushmen. 
The  Kafirs  were  then,  and  continued  down  to  our  own  time, 
in  a  state  of  incessant  tribal  warfare ;  and  from  time  to 
time  one  martial  tribe,  under  a  forceful  chief,  would  ex- 
terminate or  chase  away  some  weaker  clan  and  reduce 
wide  areas  to  a  wilderness.  Of  any  large  conquests,  or  of 
any  steady  progress  in  the  arts  either  of  war  or  of  peace, 
there  is  no  record,  and,  indeed,  in  the  general  darkness, 


THE  NATIVES 


67 


no  trace.  The  history  of  the  native  races,  so  far  as  ascer- 
tainable, begins  with  the  advent  of  the  whites,  and  even 
after  their  advent  remains  extremely  shadowy  until,  early 
in  this  century,  the  onward  march  of  settlement  gave  the 
Dutch  and  English  settlers  the  means  of  becoming  better 
acquainted  with  their  black  neighbors. 

Across  this  darkness  there  strikes  one  ray  of  light.  It 
is  a  very  faint  ray,  but  in  the  absence  of  aU  other  light  it 
is  precious.  It  is  that  which  is  supplied  by  the  prehistoric 
ruins  and  the  abandoned  gold- workings  of  Mashonaland. 


CHAPTER  IX 


OUT  OF  THE  DAEKNESS-ZIMBABWTE 

THE  rtdned  buildings  of  Mashonaland  and  MatabilHand 
have  excited  in  recent  years  an  amount  of  interest 
and  cui'iosity  which  is  disproportionate  to  their  number, 
size,  and  beauty,  but  by  no  means  disproportionate  to  their 
value  as  being  the  only  record,  scant  as  it  is,  vre  possess  of 
what  has  been  deemed  an  early  South  African  civilization. 
I  will  describe  in  the  fewest  words  such  of  these  buildings 
as  I  saw,  leaving  the  reader  of  archasological  tastes  to  find 
fuller  details  in  the  weU-known  book  of  that  enterprising  ex- 
plorer, Mr.  Theodore  Bent.^  Some  short  account  of  them 
seems  aU  the  more  needed,  because  the  first  descriptions 
published  gave  the  impression  that  they  were  far  more 
considerable  than  they  really  are. 

Scattered  over  the  plateau  of  southern  Mashonaland  and 
MatabUiland,  from  its  mountainous  edge  on  the  east  to  the 
neighborhood  of  Tati  on  the  west,  there  are  to  be  found 
fragments  of  walls  built  of  small  blocks  of  granite  re- 
sembling paATng-stones  (usually  about  a  foot  long  by  six 
inches  high,  but  often  larger),  not  cut  smooth,  but  chipped 
or  trimmed  to  a  faii'ly  uniform  size.  These  walls  are 
without  mortar  or  other  cementing  material,  but  the 

1  Unhappily  lost  to  science  by  premature  death  since  the  above 
lines  were  written. 

68 


OUT  OF  THE  DARKNESS-ZIMBABWYE  69 


stones  are  so  neatly  set  together,  and  the  wall  usually 
so  thick,  that  the  structure  is  compact  and  cohesive. 
The  walls  are  mostly  thinner  at  the  top  than  at  the  base. 
The  only  ornamentation  consists  in  placing  some  of  the 
layers  at  an  acute  angle  to  the  other  layers  above  and 
below,  so  as  to  produce  what  is  called  the  herring-bone 
pattern.  Occasionally  a  different  pattern  is  obtained  by 
leaving  spaces  at  intervals  between  the  horizontal  stones 
of  certain  layers,  making  a  kind  of  diaper.  In  some  cases 
this  ornamentation,  always  very  simple,  occurs  only  on  one 
part  of  the  wall,  and  it  has  been  said  that  it  occurs  usually 
if  not  invariably  on  the  part  which  faces  the  east.  I  heard 
of  ten  or  twelve  such  pieces  of  waU  in  different  parts 
of  the  plateau,  and  saw  photographs  of  most  of  these. 
Probably  others  exist,  for  many  districts,  especially  in  the 
hills,  have  been  imperfectly  explored,  and  trees  easily  con- 
ceal these  low  erections.  One  was  described  to  me,  where 
the  walls  are  the  facings  of  seven  terraces,  rising  one  above 
another  to  a  sort  of  platform  on  the  top.  This  I  have  not 
seen ;  but  it  is  probably  similar  to  one  which  I  did  see  and 
examine  at  a  place  called  Dhlodhlo,  about  fifty  miles  south- 
east of  Bulawayo.  This  group  of  ruins,  one  of  the  most 
interesting  in  the  country,  stands  high  among  rocky  hiUs, 
from  which  a  superb  view  is  gained  over  the  wide  stretches 
of  rolling  table-land  to  the  north  and  northwest,  a  charm- 
ing situation  which  might  have  attracted  the  old  builders 
did  they  possess  any  sense  of  beauty.  On  a  low  eminence 
there  has  been  erected  such  a  wall  of  such  hewn,  or  rather 
trimmed,  stones  as  I  have  just  described.  It  is  now  about 
twenty  feet  in  height,  and  may  have  originally  been  higher. 
On  the  eastern  side  this  wall  consists  of  three  parts,  each 
about  six  feet  high,  with  two  narrow  terraces,  each  from 
fi.ve  to  six  feet  wide,  between  them,  the  second  wall  rising 

5* 


70 


IMPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


from  the  first  terrace,  and  the  third  or  highest  wall  from 
the  second  terrace.  On  this  side  some  of  the  stone  courses 
have  the  simple  forms  of  ornamental  pattern  already  men- 
tioned. On  the  opposite,  or  western  and  northwestern,  side 
only  one  terrace  and  a  low,  unornamented  wall  of  trimmed 
stones  are  now  discernible.  To  the  north,  still  within  what 
seems  to  have  been  the  main  inclosing  wall,  are  small  in- 
closures  built  of  trimmed  stone,  which  may  have  been 
chambers  originally  roofed  with  wood  or  bushes.  At  the 
top  of  the  highest  wall  there  is  at  the  north-northwest 
end  a  small  level  platform  of  earth  or  rubble,  which 
seems  to  have  been  filled  in  behind  the  terraced  walls. 
This  platform  is  approached  by  a  narrow  passage  between 
walls  of  trimmed  stone,  at  one  point  in  which  there  ap- 
pears to  have  been  a  sort  of  narrow  gateway  barely  wide 
enough  for  two  persons  to  pass.  There  is  no  trace  of  any 
stone  building  on  the  top  of  the  platform,  and  the  remains 
of  clay  huts  which  one  finds  there  may  well  be  quite 
modern.  To  the  south  of  this  principal  structure  there  is 
a  second  small  hill  or  boss  of  granite,  protected  on  three 
sides  by  steep  sheets  of  granite  rock.  Its  top  is  inclosed 
by  a  low  wall  of  trimmed  stones,  now  in  places  quite 
broken  away,  with  no  trace  of  any  stone  building  within. 
All  round  on  the  lower  ground  are  large  inclosures  rudely 
built  of  rough  stones,  and  probably  intended  for  cattle- 
kraals.  They  may  be  quite  modern,  and  they  throw  no 
hght  on  the  purpose  of  the  ancient  buildings.  Nor  is 
much  light  to  be  obtained  from  the  objects  which  have 
been  found  in  the  ruins.  T\Tien  I  was  there  they  were 
being  searched  by  the  Mashonaland  Ancient  Ruins  Ex- 
ploration Company,  a  company  authorized  by  the  British 
South  Africa  Company  to  dig  and  scrape  in  the  ancient 
buildings  of  the  country  for  gold  or  whatever  else  of 


OUT  OF  THE  DARKNESS-ZIMBABWYE  71 


value  may  be  there  discoverable,  an  enterprise  which, 
though  it  may  accelerate  the  progress  of  archeeological  in- 
quiry, obviously  requires  to  be  conducted  with  great  care 
and  by  competent  persons.  So  far  as  I  could  observe,  all 
due  care  was  being  used  by  the  gentleman  in  charge  of  the 
work  at  Dhlodhlo ;  but  considering  how  easy  it  is  to  oblit- 
erate the  distinctive  features  of  a  ruin  and  leave  it  in  a 
condition  unfavorable  to  future  examination,  it  seems  de- 
sirable that  the  company  should,  as  a  rule,  await  the 
arrival  of  trained  archaeologists  rather  than  hurry  on 
explorations  by  amateurs,  however  zealous  and  well 
intentioned.  Of  the  objects  found,  which  were  cour- 
teously shown  to  me,  some  are  modern,  such  as  the 
bits  of  pottery,  apparently  Indian  or  Chinese,  the  bits 
of  glass,  the  bullets  and  fragments  of  flint-lock  muskets, 
a  small  cannon,  and  an  iron  hammer.  These  are  doubtless 
of  Portuguese  origin,  though  it  does  not  follow  that  any 
Portuguese  expedition  ever  penetrated  so  far  inland,  for 
they  may  have  been  gifts  or  purchases  from  the  Portu- 
guese established  on  the  coast  four  or  five  hundred  miles 
away.  So,  too,  the  silver  and  copper  ornaments  found, 
and  some  of  the  gold  ones  (occasionally  alloyed  with  cop- 
per), which  show  patterns  apparently  Portuguese,  may  be 
recent.  There  are  also,  however,  some  gold  ornaments, 
such  as  beads,  bangles  (a  skeleton  was  foiind  with  bangles 
on  the  legs  and  a  bead  necklace),  and  pieces  of  twisted  gold 
wire,  which  may  be  far  more  ancient,  and  indeed  as  old  as 
the  structure  itself.  A  small  crucible  with  nuggets  and 
small  bits  of  gold  goes  to  indicate  that  smelting  was  car- 
ried on,  though  the  nearest  ancient  gold-workings  are  six 
miles  distant.  Probably  here,  as  at  Hissarlik  and  at 
Carthage,  there  exist  remains  from  a  long  succession  of 
centuries,  the  spot  having  been  occupied  from  remote 


72 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


antiquity.^  At  present  it  is  not  only  uninhabited,  but  re- 
garded by  the  natives  with  fear.  They  believe  it  to  be 
haunted  by  the  ghosts  of  the  departed,  and  are  unwilling, 
except  in  the  daytime  and  for  wages  paid  by  the  explora- 
tion company,  to  touch  or  even  to  enter  the  ruins.  They  can 
hardly  be  persuaded  even  to  relate  such  traditions  as  exist 
regarding  the  place.  All  that  has  been  gathered  is  that  it 
was  the  dwelling  of  a  line  of  manibos,  or  chiefs,  the  last  of 
whom  was  burned  here  by  Mosilitatze,  the  Matabili  king, 
when  he  conquered  the  country  sixty  years  ago.  (The 
place  does  show  marks  of  fire.)  But  the  buildings  were 
here  long  before  the  mambos  reigned,  and  who  built  them, 
or  why,  no  one  knows.  The  natives  come  sometimes  to 
make  offerings  to  ancestral  ghosts,  especially  when  they 
ask  for  success  in  hunting ;  and  if  the  hunt  be  successful 
strips  of  meat  are  cut  off  and  placed  in  cleft  sticks  for  the 
benefit  of  the  ghosts. 

Three  hypotheses  have  been  advanced  regarding  the 
Dhlodhlo  buildings.  One  regards  them  as  a  fortress. 
The  objection  to  this  is  that  the  terraced  and  ornamented 
wall  is  so  far  from  contributing  to  defense  that  it  actually 
facilitates  attack ;  for,  by  the  help  of  the  terraces  and  of 
the  interstices  among  the  stones  which  the  ornamental 
pattern  supplies,  an  active  man  could  easily  scale  it  in 
front.  Moreover,  there  is  hard  by,  to  the  north,  a  higher 
and  more  abrupt  hiU  which  would  have  offered  a  far  bet- 
ter site  for  a  fort.  The  second  view  is  that  Dhlodhlo  was  a 
mining  station,  where  slaves  were  kept  at  work ;  but  if  so, 

1  Mr.  Neal,  managing  director  of  the  company,  has  been  good 
enough  to  inform  me  that  since  my  visit  he  satisfied  himself  that 
there  had  been  occupations  by  different  races  and  probably  at  widely 
distant  dates.  Many  skeletons  have  been  found,  with  a  good  deal 
of  gold  jewelry,  and  some  bronze  implements. 


OUT  OF  THE  DARKNESS-ZIMBABWYE  73 


why  was  it  not  placed  near  the  old  gold- workings  instead 
of  some  miles  off,  and  of  what  use  were  the  terraced 
walls  ?  The  inquirer  is  therefore  led  to  the  third  view- 
that  the  building  was  in  some  way  connected  with  reli- 
gious worship,  and  that  the  ornament  which  is  seen  along 
the  eastern  wall  was  placed  there  with  some  religious  mo- 
tive. There  is,  however,  nothing  whatever  to  indicate  the 
nature  of  that  worship,  nor  the  race  that  practised  it,  for 
no  objects  of  a  possibly  religious  character  (such  as  those 
I  shall  presently  mention  at  Zimbabwye)  have  been  found 
here. 

I  visited  a  second  ruin  among  the  mountains  of  Mashona- 
land,  near  the  Lezapi  River,  at  a  place  called  Chipadzi's 
grave,  a  mUe  from  the  kraal  of  a  chief  named  Chipunza. 
Here  a  rocky  granite  kopje,  almost  inaccessible  on  two 
sides,  is  protected  on  one  of  the  other  sides  by  a  neatly 
built  wall  of  well-trimmed  stones,  similar  to  that  at 
Dhlodhlo,  but  without  ornament.  The  piece  that  remains 
is  some  fifty  yards  long,  five  feet  thick  at  the  base,  and 
eleven  feet  high  at  its  highest  point.  It  is  obviously  a  wall 
of  defense,  for  the  only  erections  within  are  low,  rough  in- 
closures  of  loose  stones,  and  three  clay  huts,  one  of  which 
covers  the  grave  of  Chipadzi,  a  chief  who  died  some  twenty 
years  ago,  and  who  was  doubtless  interred  here  because  the 
place  was  secluded  and  already  in  a  fashion  consecrated  by 
the  presence  of  the  ancient  wall.  That  the  wall  is  ancient 
hardly  admits  of  doubt,  for  it  is  quite  unlike  any  of  the 
walls— there  are  not  many  in  the  country— which  the  Kafirs 
now  build,  these  being  always  of  stones  entirely  untrimmed 
and  very  loosely  fitted  together,  though  sometimes  plastered 
with  mud  to  make  them  hold.^    There  is  nothing  to  see 

^  This  place  is  described  by  Mr.  Selous  in  his  interesting  book,  "A 
Hunter's  Wanderings  in  Africa,"  pp.  339-341.    He  thinks  the  wall 


74 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


beyond  the  wall  itself,  and  the  only  interest  of  the  place  is 
in  its  showing  that  the  race  who  built  Dhlodhlo  and  other 
similar  walls  in  MatabilUand  were  probably  here  also. 

Much  larger  and  more  remarkable  is  the  group  of  ruins 
(situated  seventeen  miles  from  Fort  Victoria,  in  southern 
Mashonaland)  which  goes  by  the  name  of  the  Great  Zim- 
babwye.  This  Bantu  word  is  said  to  denote  a  stone  build- 
ing, but  has  often  been  used  to  describe  the  residence  of  a 
great  chief,  whatever  the  materials  of  which  it  is  con- 
structed. It  is  a  common  noun,  and  not  the  name  of  one 
particular  place.  Europeans,  however,  confine  it  to  this 
one  ruin,  or  rather  to  two  ruined  buildings  near  each 
other.  One  of  these  is  on  the  top  of  a  rocky  and  in  parts 
precipitous  hiU,  the  other  in  a  valley  half  a  mile  from  the 
foot  of  the  hni. 

The  fii'st,  which  we  may  call  the  fort,  consists  of  a  line 
of  wall,  in  parts  double,  defending  the  more  accessible 
parts  of  the  eastern  and  southeastern  end  of  the  hill  or 
kopje,  which  is  about  500  feet  high,  and  breaks  down  on 
its  southern  side  in  a  nearly  vertical  sheet  of  granite.  The 
walls,  which  in  some  places  are  thirty  feet  high,  are  aU  built 
of  small  trimmed  blocks  of  granite  such  as  I  have  already 
described,  without  mortar,  but  neatly  fitted  together.  They 
are  in  excellent  preservation,  and  are  skilfully  constructed, 
in  a  sort  of  labyrinth,  so  as  to  cover  all  the  places  where  an 
enemy  might  approach.  From  the  openings  in  the  wall, 
where  doors  were  probably  placed,  passages  are  carried  in- 
ward, very  narrow  and  winding,  so  that  only  one  person  at  a 
time  can  pass,  and  completely  commanded  by  the  high  wall 

as  well  built  as  those  at  the  Great  Zimbabwye.  To  me  it  seemed 
not  so  good,  and  a  little  rougher  even  than  the  work  at  Dhlodhlo. 
Hard  by  is  a  modern  Kafir  fort,  Chitikete,  with  a  plastered  and  loop- 
holed  rough  stone  wall,  quite  unlike  this  wall  at  Chipadzi's  grave. 


OUT  OF  THE  DAEKNESS-ZIMBABWYE  75 


on  either  side.  Everything  speaks  of  defense,  and  every- 
thing is  very  well  adapted,  considering  the  rudeness  of  the 
materials,  for  efficient  defense.  There  is  no  sort  of  orna- 
ment in  the  walls,  except  that  here  and  there  at  the  en- 
trances some  stones  are  laid  transversely  to  the  others,  and 
that  certain  long,  thin  pieces  of  a  slaty  stone,  rounded  so 
that  one  might  caU  them  stone  poles, —they  are  about  five 
to  seven  feet  long,— project  from  the  top  of  the  wall. 
Neither  is  there  any  trace  of  an  arch  or  vaulted  roof. 
None  of  what  look  like  chambers  have  a  roof.  They  were 
doubtless  covered  with  the  branches  of  trees.  Very  few 
objects  have  been  found  throwing  any  light  on  the  object 
of  the  building  or  its  builders,  and  these  have  been  now 
removed,  except  some  small  pieces  of  sandstone,  a  rock  not 
found  in  the  neighborhood,  which  (it  has  been  conjectured) 
may  have  been  brought  for  the  purposes  of  mining. 

The  other  building  is  much  more  remarkable.  It  stands 
on  a  slight  eminence  in  the  level  ground  between  the  hill 
on  which  the  fort  stands  and  another  somewhat  lower 
granite  hill,  and  is  about  a  third  of  a  mile  from  the  fort. 
It  consists  of  a  wall,  rather  eUiptieal  than  circular  in  form, 
from  thirty  to  forty  feet  high,  fourteen  feet  thick  near  the 
ground,  and  from  six  to  nine  thick  at  the  top,  where  one 
can  walk  along  a  considerable  part  with  little  difficulty. 
This  wall  is  bmlt  of  the  same  small,  well-trimmed  blocks 
of  granite,  nicely  fitted  together,  and  for  more  than  half 
the  circumference  is  in  excellent  preservation,  although 
shrubs  and  cUmbing  vines  have  here  and  there  rooted 
themselves  in  it.  The  rest  is  broken  in  parts.  There  are 
two  gates  at  the  west  and  the  north.  It  is  quite  plain,  ex- 
cept for  about  one  third  (or  perhaps  a  little  less)  of  the 
outer  face,  where  there  is  such  an  ornament,  as  I  have  al- 
ready described,  of  two  courses  of  stones  set  slantingly  at 


76 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


an  acute  angle  to  the  ordinary  flat  courses  above  and  below. 
These  two  courses  are  the  fifth  and  seventh  from  the  top. 
In  the  space  inclosed  by  the  waU,  which  is  about  three 
quarters  of  an  acre,  are  some  small  inclosures  of  trimmed 
stone,  apparently  chambers.  There  is  also  a  singular  wall 
running  parallel  to  the  great  inclosing  wall  for  some  twenty 
yards,  leaving  between  it  and  the  inside  face  of  that  great 
waU  a  very  narrow  passage,  which  at  one  point  must  have 
been  closed  by  a  door  (probably  of  stone),  for  at  that  point 
steps  lead  up  on  either  side,  and  hollow  spaces  fit  for 
receiving  a  door  i-emain.  At  one  end  this  passage  opens 
into  a  space,  where  the  most  curious  of  all  the  erections 
are  to  be  found,  namely,  two  solid  towers  of  trimmed  stones. 
One  of  these  is  quite  low,  rising  only  some  five  feet  from 
the  ground.  The  other  is  more  than  forty  feet  high,  over- 
topping the  great  inclosing  waU  (from  which  it  is  eight 
feet  distant)  by  about  five  feet,  and  has  a  bluntly  conical 
top.  It  reminds  one  a  little  of  an  Irish  round  tower, 
though  not  so  high,  save  that  the  Irish  towers  are  hollow 
and  this  sohd,  or  of  a  Buddhist  tope,  save  that  the  topes, 
which  are  solid,  are  very  much  thicker.  There  is  nothing 
whatever  to  indicate  the  purpose  of  this  tower,  but  the 
fact  that  the  space  in  which  it  and  the  smaller  tower 
stand  is  cut  off  from  the  rest  of  the  inclosed  area  by  a 
pretty  high  wall  seems  to  show  that  it  was  meant  to  be 
specially  protected  or  was  deemed  to  be  specially  sacred. 

Outside  the  main  inclosing  wall  are  several  small  in- 
closures of  irregular  shape,  surrounded  by  similar  waUs 
of  trimmed  stones,  but  aU  low  and  broken  and  with  noth- 
ing inside.  One  of  these  joins  on  to  the  main  waU  of  the 
great  inclosure. 

This  is  all  that  there  is  to  see  at  Zimbabwye.  What  I 
have  described  seems  little,  and  that  little  is  simple,  even 


OUT  OP  THE  DARKNESS-ZIMBABWYE  77 


rude.  The  interest  lies  in  guessiag  what  the  walls  were 
built  for,  and  by  whom.  Comparatively  little  has  been 
discovered  by  digging.  No  inscriptions  whatever  have 
been  found.  Some  figures  of  birds  rudely  carved  in  a 
sort  of  soapstone  were  fixed  along  the  top  of  the  walls 
of  the  fort,  and  have  been  removed  to  the  Cape  Town 
museum.  It  is  thought  that  they  represent  vultures, 
and  the  vulture  was  a  bird  of  religious  significance 
among  some  of  the  Semitic  nations.  Fragments  of  soap- 
stone  bowls  were  discovered,  some  with  figures  of  animals 
carved  on  them,  some  with  geometrical  patterns, while  on  one 
were  marks  which  might  possibly  belong  to  some  primitive 
alphabet.  There  were  also  whorls  somewhat  resembling 
those  which  occur  so  profusely  in  the  ruins  of  Troy,  and 
stone  objects  which  may  be  phalli,  though  some  at  least  of 
them  are  deemed  by  the  authorities  of  the  British  Museimi 
(to  whom  I  have  shown  them)  to  be  probably  pieces  used 
for  playing  a  game  like  that  of  fox  and  geese.  The  iron 
and  bronze  weapons  which  were  found  may  have  been 
comparatively  modern,  but  the  small  crucibles  for  smelt- 
ing gold,  with  tools  and  a  curious  ingot-mold,  were  ap- 
parently ancient. 

What  purpose  were  these  buildings  meant  to  serve? 
That  on  the  hill  was  evidently  a  stronghold,  and  a  strong- 
hold of  a  somewhat  elaborate  kind,  erected  against  an 
enemy  deemed  formidable.  The  large  building  below  can 
hardly  have  been  a  place  of  defense,  because  it  stands  on 
level  ground  with  a  high,  rocky  hill  just  above  it,  which 
would  have  afforded  a  miich  stronger  situation.  Neither 
was  it  a  mining  station,  for  the  nearest  place  where  there 
is  any  trace  of  ancient  gold-workings  is  seven  miles  away, 
and  in  a  mining  station,  even  if  meant  to  hold  slave  workers, 
there  would  have  been  no  use  for  a  wall  so  lofty  as  this.  Two 


78 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


hypotheses  remain :  that  this  was  the  residence  of  a  chief, 
or  that  it  was  erected  for  the  purposes  of  religious  wor- 
ship. It  may  have  been  both — a  palace,  so  to  speak,  with 
a  temple  attached.  The  presence  of  the  inner  inclosure, 
guarded  by  its  separate  wall,  and  with  its  ciirious  tower, 
is  most  plausibly  explained  by  supposing  a  rehgious  pur- 
pose, for  as  religion  is  the  strangest  of  all  human  things, 
and  that  in  which  men  most  vary,  so  it  is  naturally  called 
in  to  explain  what  is  otherwise  inexpHcable. 

What,  then,  was  the  religion  of  those  who  bmlt  this 
shrine,  if  shrine  it  was  ?  The  ornamentation  of  that  part 
of  the  outer  wall  which  faces  the  rising  sun  suggests  sim- 
worship.  The  phalli  (if  they  are  phalli)  point  to  one  of  the 
Oriental  forms  of  the  worship  of  the  forces  of  nature.  The 
birds'  heads  may  have  a  religious  significance,  and  possibly 
the  significance  which  it  is  said  that  \'ultures  had  in  the 
Syrian  nature- worship.  These  data  give  some  slight  pre- 
sumptions, yet  the  fi.eld  for  conjecture  remains  a  very  wide 
one,  and  there  is  nothing  in  the  buildings  to  indicate  the 
particular  race  who  erected  the  fort  and  the  temple  (if  it 
was  a  temple).  However,  the  tower  bears  some  resem- 
blance to  a  tower  which  appears  within  a  town  wall  on  an 
ancient  coin  of  the  Phoenician  city  of  Byblus,  and  this  co- 
incidence, slight  enough,  has,  in  the  dearth  of  other  light, 
been  used  to  support  the  view  that  the  buQders  belonged 
to  some  Semitic  race. 

Had  we  nothing  but  the  ruined  walls  of  Zimbabwye, 
Dhlodhlo,  and  the  other  spots  where  similar  ruins  have 
been  observed,  the  problem  would  be  insoluble.  "We  could 
only  say  that  the  existing  native  races  had  at  some  ap- 
parently distant  time  been  more  civilized  than  they  are 
now  and  capable  of  building  walls  they  do  not  now  bmld, 
or  else  we  should  suppose  that  some  now  extinct  race  had 


OUT  OF  THE  DARKNESS-ZIMBABWYE  79 


built  these.  But  there  are  other  facts  known  to  us  which 
suggest,  though  they  do  not  establish,  an  hypothesis  re- 
garding the  early  history  of  the  country. 

In  very  remote  times  there  existed,  as  is  known  from  the 
Egjrptian  monuments,  a  trade  from  Southeast  Africa  into 
the  Red  Sea.  The  remarkable  sculptures  at  Deir  el  Bahari, 
near  Luxor,  dating  from  the  time  of  Queen  Hatasu,  sister 
of  the  great  conqueror  Thothmes  III  (b.  c.  1600  ?),  represent 
the  return  of  an  expedition  from  a  country  called  Punt, 
which  would  appear,  from  the  objects  brought  back,  to 
have  been  somewhere  on  the  East  African  coast.  ^  Much 
later  the  Book  of  Kings  (1  Kings  ix.  26-28 ;  x.  11,  15,  22) 
tells  us  that  Solomon  and  Hu-am  of  Tyre  entered  into  a 
sort  of  joint  adventure  trade  from  the  Red  Sea  port  of 
Ezion-geber  to  a  country  named  Ophir,  which  produced 
gold.  There  are  other  indications  that  gold  used  to  come 
from  East  Africa,  but  so  far  as  we  know  it  has  never  been 
obtained  in  quantity  from  any  part  of  the  coast  between 
Mozambique  and  Cape  Guardafui.  Thus  there  are 
grounds  for  believing  that  a  traffic  between  the  Red  Sea 
and  the  coast  south  of  the  Zambesi  may  have  existed  from 
very  remote  times.  Of  its  later  existence  there  is  of 
course  no  doubt.  We  know  from  Arabian  soui'ces  that  in 
the  eighth  century  an  Arab  tribe  defeated  in  war  estab- 
lished itself  on  the  African  coast  south  of  Cape  Guardafui, 
and  that  from  the  ninth  century  onward  there  was  a  con- 
siderable trade  between  Southeast  Africa  and  the  Red  Sea 
ports— a  trade  which  may  well  have  existed  long  before. 
And  when  the  Portuguese  began  to  explore  the  coast  in 
1496  they  found  Arab  chieftains  established  at  various 
points  along  it  as  far  south  as  Sofala,  and  found  them  get- 

1  Maspero  ("Histoire  ancienne  des  peuples  d'Orient,"  p.  169)  con- 
jectures Somaliland. 


80 


raPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


ting  gold  from  the  interior.  Three  things,  therefore,  are 
certain— a  trade  between  Southeast  Africa  and  the  Red 
Sea,  a  certain  number  of  Arabs  settled  along  the  edge  of  the 
ocean,  and  an  export  of  gold.  Now  all  over  Mashonaland 
and  MatabHiland  ancient  gold-workings  have  been  ob- 
served. Some  are  quite  modem,— one  can  see  the  wooden 
supports  and  the  iron  tools  not  yet  destroyed  by  rust,— and 
it  would  seem  from  the  accounts  of  the  natives  that  the  mia- 
ing  went  on  to  some  small  extent  down  to  sixty  years  ago, 
when  the  Matabili  conquered  the  country.  Others,  how- 
ever, are,  from  the  appearance  of  the  ground,  obviously 
much  more  ancient.  I  have  seen  some  that  must  have 
been  centuries  old,  and  have  been  told  of  others  appa- 
rently far  older,  possibly  as  old  as  the  buUdings  at  Zim- 
babwye.  I  have,  moreover,  been  informed  by  ]\Ir.  Cecil 
Rhodes  (who  takes  a  keen  interest  in  African  archa?ology) 
that  he  has  seen  on  the  high  plateau  of  Inyanga,  in  east- 
ern Mashonaland,  some  remarkable  circidar  pits  lined  with 
stone,  and  approached  in  each  case  by  a  narrow  subter- 
ranean passage,  which  can  best  be  explained  by  supposing 
them  to  have  been  receptacles  for  the  confinement  of  slaves 
occupied  in  tilling  the  soU,  as  the  surrounding  country 
bears  marks,  in  the  remains  of  ancient  irrigation  channels, 
of  an  extensive  system  of  tillage  where  none  now  exists. 
The  way  in  which  the  stones  are  laid  in  these  pit-waUs 
is  quite  unlike  any  modern  Kafir  work,  and  points  to  the 
presence  of  a  more  advanced  race.  Putting  all  these  facts 
together,  it  has  been  plausibly  argued  that  at  some  very 
distant  period  men  more  civilized  than  the  Kafirs  came  in 
search  of  gold  into  Mashonaland,  opened  these  mines,  and 
obtained  from  them  the  gold  which  found  its  way  to  the 
Red  Sea  ports,  and  that  the  buildings  whose  ruins  we  see 
were  their  work.  How  long  ago  this  happened  we  cannot 


OUT  or  THE  DARKNESS-ZIMBABWYE  81 


tell,  but  if  the  strangers  came  from  Arabia  tbey  must  have 
done  so  earlier  than  the  time  of  Mohammed,  for  there  is 
nothing  of  an  Islamic  character  about  the  ruins  or  the 
remains  found,  and  it  is  just  as  easy  to  suppose  that  they 
came  in  the  days  of  Solomon,  fifteen  centuries  before 
Mohammed.  Nor  can  we  guess  how  they  disappeared : 
whether  they  were  overpowered  and  exterminated  by 
the  Kafirs,  or  whether,  as  Mr.  Selous  conjectures,  they 
were  gradually  absorbed  by  the  latter,  theii-  civilization 
and  religion  perishing,  although  the  practice  of  mining 
for  gold  remained.  The  occasional  occurrence  among 
the  Kafirs  of  faces  with  a  cast  of  features  approaching  the 
Semitic  has  been  thought  to  confii-m  this  notion,  though 
nobody  has  as  yet  suggested  that  we  are  to  look  here  for 
the  lost  Ten  Tribes.  Whoever  these  people  were,  they 
have  long  since  vanished.  The  natives  seem  to  have  no 
traditions  about  the  builders  of  Zimbabwye  and  the  other 
ancient  walls,  though  they  regard  the  ruins  with  a  certain 
awe,  and  fear  to  approach  them  at  twilight. 

It  is  this  mystery  which  makes  these  buildings,  the  soli- 
tary archaeological  curiosities  of  South  Africa,  so  impres- 
sive. The  ruins  are  not  grand,  nor  are  they  beautiful ;  they 
are  simple  even  to  rudeness.  It  is  the  loneliness  of  the 
landscape  in  which  they  stand,  and  stiU  more  the  complete 
darkness  which  surrounds  their  origin,  their  object,  and 
their  history,  that  gives  to  them  their  unique  interest. 
Whence  came  the  builders  ?  What  tongue  did  they  speak  ? 
What  religion  did  they  practise  ?  Did  they  vanish  imper- 
ceptibly away,  or  did  they  fly  to  the  coast,  or  were  they 
massacred  in  a  rising  of  their  slaves  ?  We  do  not  know ; 
probably  we  shall  never  know.  We  can  only  say,  in  the 
words  of  the  Eastern  poet : 

They  come  like  water,  and  like  wind  they  go. 

6 


CHAPTER  X 
THE  KAFIRS:   THEIR  HISTORY  AND  INSTITUTIONS 

THE  curtain  rises  upon  the  Kafir  peoples  when  the 
Portuguese  landed  on  the  east  coast  of  Africa  in  the 
beginning  of  the  sixteenth  centuiy.  Arab  sheiks  then 
held  a  few  of  the  coast  villages,  ruling  over  a  mixed  race, 
nominally  Mohammedan,  and  trading  with  the  Bantu 
tribes  of  the  interior.  The  vessels  of  these  Arabs  crossed 
the  Indian  Ocean  with  the  monsoon  to  Calicut  and  the 
Malabar  coast,  and  the  Indian  goods  they  brought  were 
exchanged  for  the  gold  and  ivory  which  the  natives 
brought  down.  The  principal  race  that  held  the  country 
between  the  Limpopo  and  the  Zambesi  was  that  which  the 
Portuguese  called  Makalanga  or  Makaranga,  and  which 
we  now  call  Makalaka.  They  are  the  progenitors  of  the 
tribes  who,  now  greatly  reduced  in  numbers  and  divided 
into  smaU  villages  and  clans,  occupy  Mashonaland.  Their 
head  chief  was  called  the  Monomotapa,  a  name  interpreted 
to  mean  "  Lord  of  the  Mountain  "or  "  Lord  of  the  Mines." 
This  personage  was  turned  by  Portuguese  grandiloquence 
into  an  emperor,  and  by  some  European  geographers  into 
the  name  of  an  empire ;  so  Monomotapa  came  to  figure  on 
old  maps  as  the  designation  of  a  vast  territory. 

When,  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  the 

82 


THE  KAFIRS 


83 


Dutch  began  to  learn  something  of  the  Kafirs  who  dwelt 
farther  to  the  south,  they  found  that  there  was  no  large  do- 
minion, but  a  great  number  of  petty  tribes,  mostly  engaged 
in  war  with  one  another.  Some  were  half  nomad,  none 
was  firmly  rooted  in  the  soil;  and  the  fact  that  tribes 
who  spoke  similar  dialects  were  often  far  away  from  one 
another,  with  a  tribe  of  a  different  dialect  living  between, 
indicated  that  there  had  been  many  displacements  of 
population  of  which  no  historical  record  existed.  Early 
in  the  present  century  events  occui-red  which  showed  how 
such  displacements  might  have  been  brought  about.  In 
the  last  years  of  the  eighteenth  century  Dingiswayo,  the 
exiled  son  of  the  chief  of  the  Abatetwa  tribe,  which  lived 
in  what  is  now  Zululand,  found  his  way  to  the  Cape, 
and  learned  to  admire  the  military  organization  of  the 
British  troops  who  were  then  holding  the  Colony.  Re- 
turning home  and  regaining  his  throne,  he  began  to 
organize  and  drill  his  warriors,  who  before  that  time  had 
fought  without  order  or  discipline,  like  other  savages.  His 
favorite  of&cer  was  Tshaka,  a  young  chief,  also  exiled,  who 
belonged  to  the  then  small  tribe  of  Zulus.  On  the  death 
of  Dingiswayo,  Tshaka  was  chosen  its  chief  by  the  army, 
and  the  tribes  that  had  obeyed  Dingiswayo  were  thence- 
forward known  under  the  name  of  Zulus.  Tshaka,  who 
united  to  his  intellectual  gifts  a  boundless  ambition  and  a 
ruthless  will,  perfected  the  military  system  of  his  master, 
and  armed  his  soldiers  with  a  new  weapon,  a  short,  broad- 
bladed  spear,  fit  for  stabbing  at  close  quarters,  instead  of 
the  old  light  javehn  which  had  been  theretofore  used.  He 
formed  them  into  regiments,  and  drilled  them  to  such  a 
perfection  of  courage  that  no  enemy  could  withstand  their 
rush,  and  the  defeated  force,  except  such  as  could  escape 
by  fleetness  of  foot,  was  slaughtered  on  the  spot.  Quarter 


84 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


had  never  been  given  in  native  wars,  but  the  trained  valor 
of  the  Zulus,  and  their  habit  of  immediately  engaging  the 
enemy  hand  to  hand,  not  only  gave  them  an  advantage  like 
that  which  suddenly  made  the  Spartan  inf  antiy  superior  to 
all  their  neighbors,  but  rendered  their  victories  far  more 
sanguinary  than  native  battles  had  previously  been. 
Tshaka  rapidly  subjected  or  blotted  out  all  the  clans  that 
lived  round,  except  the  Swazis,  a  kindred  tribe  whose  diffi- 
cult country  gave  them  some  protection.  He  devastated  all 
the  region  round  that  of  his  own  subjects,  while  the  flight 
before  his  waiTiors  of  the  weaker  ti-ibes,  each  of  which 
fell  upon  its  neighbors  with  the  assagai,  caused  wide-spread 
slaughter  and  ruin  aU  over  Southeast  Africa.  Natal  be- 
came almost  a  desert,  and  of  the  survivors  who  escaped 
into  the  mountains,  many  took  to  cannibahsm  for  want  of 
other  food.  To  the  north  of  the  Vaal  River  a  section  of 
the  Zulu  army,  which  had  revolted  under  its  general, 
Mosilikatze,  carried  slaughter  and  destruction  through 
the  surrounding  country  for  hundi-eds  of  mUes,  tUl  it  was 
itself  chased  away  beyond  the  Limpopo  by  the  emigrant 
Boers,  as  will  be  related  in  the  following  chapter. 

To  trace  the  history  of  these  various  native  wars  would 
occupy  far  more  space  than  I  can  spare.  I  will  sum  up 
their  general  results. 

A  new  and  powerful  kingdom,  far  stronger  than  any 
other  native  monarchy  we  know  to  have  existed  before  or 
since,  was  formed  by  the  Zulus.  It  remained  powerful 
under  Dingaan  (who  murdered  his  brother  Tshaka  in 
1828),  Panda  (brother  of  Tshaka  and  Dingaan),  and  Cete- 
wayo  (son  of  Panda),  till  1879,  when  it  was  overthi'own  by 
the  British. 

Various  offshoots  from  the  Zulu  nation  were  scattered 
out  in  different  directions.    The  MatabiU  occupied  Mata- 


THE  KAFIRS 


85 


bililand  in  1838.  The  Angoni  had  still  earlier  crossed  the 
Zambesi  and  settled  in  Nyassaland,  where  they  are  stUl 
formidable  to  their  native  neighbors  and  troublesome  to 
the  whites. 

Kafir  tribes  from  the  northeast  were  driven  southward 
into  the  mountain  country  now  called  Basutoland,  most 
of  which  had  been  previously  inhabited  only  by  Bushmen, 
and  here  the  Basuto  kingdom  was  built  up  out  of  fugitive 
clans,  by  the  famous  chief  Moshesh,  between  1820  and 
1840. 

Some  of  the  Bechuana  tribes  were  driven  from  the  east 
into  their  present  seats  in  Bechuanaland,  some  few  far 
northwest  to  the  banks  of  the  Zambesi,  where  Livingstone 
found  them. 

Not  only  what  is  now  Natal,  but  most  of  what  is  now 
the  Orange  Free  State,  with  a  part  of  the  Transvaal,  was 
almost  denuded  of  inhabitants.  This  had  the  important 
consequence  of  inducing  the  emigi'ants  from  Cape  Colony, 
whose  fortunes  I  shall  trace  in  the  following  chapter,  to 
move  toward  these  regions  and  establish  themselves  there. 

The  Gaza  tribe,  of  Zulu  race,  but  revolters  from  Tshaka, 
broke  away  from  that  tyrant,  and  carried  fire  and  sword 
among  the  Tongas  and  other  tribes  living  to  the  west  and 
northwest  of  Delagoa  Bay.  In  1833  they  destroyed  the 
Portuguese  gamson  there.  In  1862  a  chief  called  MzUa 
became  their  king,  and  established  his  dominion  over  all 
the  tribes  that  dwell  on  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Quath- 
lamba  Mountains,  between  the  Limpopo  and  the  Zambesi. 
He  and  his  son  Gungunhana,  who  in  1896  was  seized  and 
carried  off  by  the  Portuguese,  were  for  a  time  at  the  head 
of  the  third  great  native  power  in  South  Africa,  the  other 
two  being  that  of  Cetewayo,  which  perished  in  1879,  and 
that  of  Lo  Bengula,  overthrown  in  1893.    All  three  were 


6* 


86  IMPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


Zulus  in  blood.  Originally  small  in  number,  this  race  has 
played  by  far  the  greatest  part  in  the  annals  of  the  native 
peoples. 

The  career  of  Tshaka  has  deserved  some  description, 
because  it  changed  the  face  of  South  Africa  in  a  somewhat 
similar  way,  allowing  for  the  difference  of  scale,  to  that  in 
which  the  career  of  Tshaka's  contemporary,  the  Napoleon 
Bonaparte,  changed  the  face  of  Europe.  But  in  1836,  eight 
years  after  Tshaka's  death,  the  white  man,  who  had  hith- 
erto come  in  contact  with  the  Kafirs  only  on  the  Zambesi 
and  at  a  few  points  on  the  southeastern  and  southern 
coast,  began  that  march  into  the  interior  which  has  now 
brought  him  to  the  shores  of  Lake  Tangamoka.  Thence- 
forward the  wars  of  the  natives  among  themselves  cease 
to  be  important.  It  is  their  strife  with  the  European 
conqueror  that  is  of  consequence,  and  the  narrative  of 
that  strife  belongs  to  the  history  of  the  European  col- 
onies and  republics,  which  will  be  given  in  the  two  suc- 
ceeding chapters.  This,  however,  seems  the  right  place 
for  some  remarks  on  the  government  and  customs  of  the 
Kafir  tribes,  intended  to  explain  the  conditions  under 
which  these  tribes  have  met  and  attempted  to  resist  the 
white  strangers  who  have  now  become  their  rulers. 

The  Kafirs  were  savages,  yet  not  of  a  low  type,  for  they 
tUled  the  soil,  could  work  in  metals,  spoke  a  highly  de- 
veloped language,  and  had  a  sort  of  customary  law.  The 
southeast  coast  tribes,  Zulus,  Pondos,  Tembus,  Kosas,  in- 
habiting a  fairly  weU  watered  and  fertile  countrj',  were,  as 
a  rule,  the  strongest  men  and  the  fiercest  fighters ;  but 
the  tribes  of  the  interior  were  not  inferior  in  intellect, 
and  sometimes  superior  in  the  arts.  Lower  in  every  re- 
spect were  the  west  coast  tribes.  They  dwelt  in  a  poor 
and  almost  waterless  land,  and  their  blood  was  mixed 


THE  KAFIRS 


87 


•with  that  of  Hottentots  and  Bushmen.  In  every  race 
the  organization  was  by  families,  clans,  and  tribes,  the  tribe 
consisting  of  a  number  of  clans  or  smaller  groups,  having 
at  its  head  one  supreme  chief,  belonging  to  a  family  whose 
genealogy  was  carefully  preserved.  The  power  of  the 
chief  was,  however,  not  everywhere  the  same.  Among  the 
Zulus,  whose  organization  was  entirely  military,  he  was  a 
despot  whose  word  was  law.  Among  the  Beehuana  tribes, 
and  their  kinsfolk  the  Basutos,  he  was  obhged  to  defer  to 
the  sentiment  of  the  people,  which  (in  some  tribes)  found 
expression  in  a  public  meeting  where  every  freeman  had 
a  right  to  speak  and  might  differ  from  the  chief.  ^  Even 
such  able  men  as  the  Basuto  Moshesh  and  the  Beehuana 
KJiama  had  often  to  bend  to  the  wish  of  their  subjects,  and 
a  further  check  existed  in  the  tendency  to  move  away  from 
a  harsh  and  unpopular  chief  and  place  one's  self  under 
the  protection  of  some  more  tactful  ruler.  Everywhere, 
of  course,  the  old  customs  had  great  power,  and  the  influ- 
ence of  the  old  men  who  were  most  conversant  with  them 
was  considerable.  The  chief  of  the  whole  tribe  did  not 
interfere  much  with  affairs  outside  his  own  particular  clan, 
and  was  a  more  important  figure  in  war-time  than  during 
peace.  Aided  by  a  council  of  his  leading  men,  each  chief 
administered  justice  and  settled  disputes ;  and  it  was  his 
function  to  aUot  land  to  those  who  asked  for  a  field  to  till, 
the  land  itself  belonging  to  the  tribe  as  awhole.  The  chief's 
act  gave  a  title  to  the  piece  allotted  so  long  as  it  was  culti- 
vated, for  public  opinion  resented  any  arbitrary  eviction  ; 
but  pasture-land  was  open  to  aU  the  cattle  of  the  clansmen. 
It  was  in  cattle  that  the  wealth  of  a  chief  or  a  rich  man 
lay,  and  cattle,  beiug  the  common  measvire  of  value,  served 

^  See  further  as  to  this  public  meeting  the  remarks  on  the  Basuto 
Pitso  in  the  chapter  on  Basutoland. 


88 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


as  currency,  as  they  serve  still  among  the  more  remote 
tribes  which,  have  not  learned  to  use  British  coin.  Poly- 
gamy was  practised  by  all  who  could  afford  it,  the  wife 
being  purchased  from  her  father  with  cattle,  more  or 
fewer  according  to  her  rank.  This  practice,  called  loholo, 
still  prevails  universally,  and  has  caused  much  perplexity 
to  the  missionaries.  The  objections  to  it  are  obvious,  but 
it  is  closely  intertwined  with  the  whole  system  of  native 
society.  A  chief  had  usually  a  head  wife,  belonging  to 
some  important  house,  and  her  sons  were  preferred  in  suc- 
cession to  those  of  the  inferior  wives.  In  some  tribes  the 
chief,  like  a  Turkish  sultan,  had  no  regular  wife,  but  only 
concubines.  Among  the  coast  tribes  no  one,  except  a 
chief,  was  suffered  to  marry  any  one  of  kin  to  him.  There 
was  great  pride  of  birth  among  the  head  chiefs,  and  their 
genealogies  have  in  not  a  few  cases  been  carefully  kept  for 
seven  or  eight  generations. 

Slavery  existed  among  some  of  the  tribes  of  the  interior, 
and  the  ordinary  wife  was  everywhere  little  better  than  a 
slave,  being  required  to  do  nearly  all  the  tillage  and  most 
of  the  other  work,  except  that  about  the  cattle,  which, 
being  more  honorable,  was  performed  by  men.  The  male 
Kafir  is  a  lazy  f  eUow  who  likes  talking  and  sleeping  bet- 
ter than  continuous  physical  exertion,  and  the  difficulty 
of  inducing  him  to  work  is  the  chief  difficulty  which  Eu- 
ropean mine-owners  in  South  Africa  complain  of.  Like 
most  men  in  his  state  of  civilization,  he  is  fond  of  hunting, 
even  in  its  lowest  forms,  and  of  fighting.  Both  of  these 
pleasures  are  being  withdrawn  from  him,  the  former  by 
the  extinction  of  the  game,  the  latter  by  the  British  gov- 
ernment ;  but  it  will  be  long  before  he  acquires  the  habits 
of  steady  and  patient  industry  which  have  become  part  of 
the  character  of  the  inhabitants  of  India. 


THE  KAFIES 


89 


"War  was  the  natural  state  of  the  tribes  toward  one  an- 
other, jnst  as  it  was  among  the  Red  Indians  and  the  primi- 
tive Celts,  and  indeed  generally  everywhere  in  the  early 
days  of  Europe.  Their  weapons  were  the  spear  or  assagai, 
and  a  sort  of  wooden  club,  occasionally  a  crescent-shaped 
battle-ax,  and  stiU  less  frequently  the  bow.  Horses  were 
unknown,  for  the  ox,  sheep,  and  dog  were  over  all  South 
Africa  the  only  domesticated  quadrupeds.  One  tribe, 
however,  the  Basutos,  now  breeds  horses  extensively,  and 
has  turned  them  to  account  in  fighting.  The  rapid  move- 
ment of  their  mounted  warriors  was  one  of  the  chief 
difficulties  the  colonial  forces  had  to  deal  with  in  the  last 
Basuto  war.  The  courage  in  war  which  distinguished  the 
tribes  of  Zvlu  and  Kosa  race  was  all  the  more  creditable 
because  it  had  not,  like  that  of  the  Mohammedan  dervishes 
of  the  Sudan,  or  of  Mohammedans  anywhere  engaged  in 
&,  jehad,  a  religious  motive  and  the  promise  of  future  bliss 
behind  it.  The  British  army  has  encountered  no  more 
daring  or  formidable  enemies.  Nine  wars  were  needed  to 
subjugate  the  Kafirs  of  the  southern  coast,  although  tOl 
recently  they  did  not  possess  firearms.  But  the  Zulus 
had  no  idea  of  the  tactics  needed  in  facing  a  civilized  foe. 
As  in  their  battles  with  the  Boers  they  were  destroyed 
by  the  fire  of  horsemen  riding  up,  delivering  a  volley, 
and  riding  off  before  an  assagai  could  reach  them,  so  in 
the  great  war  with  Cetewayo  in  1879  they  fought  in  the 
open  and  were  mowed  down  by  British  volleys;  and  in 
1893  the  MatabOi  perished  in  the  same  way  under  the  fire 
of  riflemen  and  Maxim  guns  sheltered  behind  a  laager  of 
wagons. 

Religion  was  a  powerful  factor  in  Kafir  life ;  but  religion 
did  not  mean  the  worship  of  any  deity,  for  there  was  no 
deity.    StiU  less  had  it  any  moral  significance.    To  the 


90 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


Kafirs,  as  to  most  savage  races,  the  world  was  full  of 
spirits — spirits  of  the  rivers,  the  mountains,  and  the 
woods.  Most  important  were  the  ghosts  of  the  dead, 
who  had  power  to  injure  or  to  help  the  living,  and  who 
were  therefore  propitiated  by  offerings  at  stated  periods, 
as  well  as  on  occasions  when  their  aid  was  specially  desired. 
This  kind  of  worship,  the  worship  once  most  generally 
diffused  throughout  the  world,  and  which  held  its  ground 
among  the  Greeks  and  Italians  in  the  most  flourishing 
period  of  ancient  ciAolization,  as  it  does  in  China  and 
Japan  to-day,  was  and  is  virtually  the  religion  of  the 
Kafirs.  It  was  chiefly  rendered  to  the  ghosts  of  the  chiefs, 
who  retained  in  the  spirit  world  the  exceptional  importance 
they  had  held  among  the  living ;  and  it  had  much  weight 
in  maintaining  loyalty  to  a  chief,  because  revolt  against 
him  was  an  insult  to  a  powerful  set  of  ghosts.  The  ghost 
dwelt  at  the  spot  where  the  body  was  buried,  and  it  was 
therefore  at  the  grave  that  the  offerings,  mostly  of  cakes 
and  Kafir  beer,  were  made.  Occasionally  animals  were 
killed,  not  so  much  by  way  of  sacrifice  as  for  the  sake  of 
providing  the  ghost  with  a  specially  precious  kind  of  food, 
though  the  two  ideas  run  close  together  in  most  primitive 
worships.^  Among  the  Matabili,  for  instance,  there  was 
once  a  year  a  great  feast  in  honor  of  the  king's  ancestors, 
who  were  supposed  to  come  and  join  in  the  mirth.  It  was 
also  to  the  grave  that  those  who  wished  to  call  up  the 
ghost  by  speUs  went  to  effect  their  nefarious  purpose,  and 
the  real  place  of  interment  of  a  great  chief  was  for  this 
reason  sometimes  concealed.  I  found  at  Thaba  Bosiyo,  the 

1  Those  who  are  curious  on  this  subject  may  consult  Mr.  Frazer's 
"Golden  Bough,"  and  the  late  Mr.  Robertson  Smith's  "Religion  of 
the  Semites,"  where  many  interesting  and  profoundly  suggestive 
facts  regarding  it  are  collected. 


THE  KAFIRS 


91 


famous  stronghold  of  the  Basuto  Moshesh,  that  the  body 
of  that  chief  had  been  secretly  removed  from  the  place 
where  he  was  buried  to  baflle  the  wizards,  who  might  try  to 
use  his  ghost  against  the  living.  The  ghost  is,  of  course, 
apt  to  be  spiteful,  that  of  an  uncle  (I  was  told)  particularly 
so ;  and  if  he  is  neglected  he  is  extremely  likely  to  bring 
some  evil  on  the  family  or  tribe.  Sometimes  the  spirit  of 
an  ancestor  passes  into  an  animal,  and  by  preference  into 
that  of  a  snake,  not  that  it  lives  in  the  snake,  but  that  it  as- 
sumes this  form  when  it  wishes  to  visit  men.  A  particu- 
lar kind  of  green  snake  is  revered  by  the  Matabili  for 
this  reason.  And  most,  if  not  all,  tribes  had  an  animal 
which  they  deemed  to  be  of  kin  to  them,  and  which  they 
called  their  Siboko,"  a  term  apparently  corresponding  to 
the  totem  of  the  North  American  Indians.  Creatures  of 
this  species  thej'^  never  killed,  and  some  tribes  took  their 
name  from  it.  Thus  the  Ba  Taung  are  the  people  of  the 
lion;  the  Bamangwato  have  the  duyker  antelope  for 
their  totem;  and  in  the  Basuto  pitso  (public  meeting)  an 
orator  wiU  begin  by  addressing  his  audience  as  "  sons  of 
the  crocodile."  Of  human  sacrifices  there  seems  to  be  no 
trace.  Men  were  klUed  for  all  possible  reasons,  but  never 
as  offerings.  And,  indeed,  to  have  so  killed  them  would 
have  been  to  treat  the  ghosts  as  cannibals,  a  view  foreign 
to  native  habits,  for  though  human  flesh  has  been  resorted 
to  in  times  of  severe  famine,  it  has  never  been  regularly 
eaten,  and  the  use  of  it  excites  disgust. 

Whether  the  Kafirs  had  any  idea  of  a  supreme  being  is 
a  question  which  has  been  much  discussed.  In  several 
tribes  the  word,  differently  speUed  "  Umlimo  "  or  "  Mlimo  " 
or  "Molimo"  (said  to  mean  "hidden"  or  "unseen"),  is 
used  to  denote  either  a  power  apparently  different  from 
that  of  the  nature  sprites  or  ghosts  of  the  dead,  or  else 


92 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


the  prophet  or  soothsayer  who  delivers  messages  or 
oracles  supposed  to  emanate  from  this  power.  The 
missionaries  have  in  their  native  versions  of  the  Bible 
used  the  term  to  translate  the  word  "  God."  Sometimes, 
among  the  Tongas  at  least,  the  word  tilo  (sky)  is  used 
to  describe  a  mysterious  force :  as,  for  instance,  when  a 
man  dies  without  any  apparent  malady,  he  is  said  to  be 
killed  by  the  tUo.^  On  the  whole,  after  many  inquiries 
from  missionaries  and  others  who  know  the  natives  well, 
I  was  led  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Kafii'S  have  a  vague 
notion  of  some  power  transcending  that  of  common  ghosts, 
and  able  to  affect  the  operations  of  nature  (as,  for  instance, 
to  send  rain),  but  far  too  dimly  conceived  to  be  properly 
describable  as  a  divine  being.  Or  to  put  the  thing  in  other 
words,  the  ordinary  and  familiar  nature  sprites  and  ghosts 
of  the  departed  do  not  exhaust  the  possibilities  of  super- 
human agency;  for  there  remains,  as  among  the  Athen- 
ians, whose  altar  St.  Paul  found  (Acts  xvii.  23),  an 
"  unknown  God,"  or  rather  unknown  power,  probably  as- 
sociated with  the  heavens  above,  whose  interference  may 
produce  results  not  otherwise  attainable.  One  of  the 
difi&culties  in  reaching  any  knowledge  of  the  real  belief  of 
the  people  is  that  they  are  usually  examined  by  leading 
questions,  and  are  apt  to  reply  afiirmatively  to  whatever  the 
querist  puts  to  them.  Their  thoughts  on  these  dark  sub- 
jects are  either  extremely  vague  and  mistj'^  or  extremely 
material ;  the  world  of  abstract  thought,  in  which  European 
minds  have  learned  to  move  with  an  ease  and  confidence 
produced  by  the  possession  of  a  whole  arsenal  of  theologi- 
cal and  metaphysical  phrases,  being  to  them  an  undiscov- 
ered country. 

^  As  in  Homer's  day  sudden  deaths  were  attributed  to  the  arrows 
of  Apollo  or  Artemis. 


THE  KAFIRS 


93 


Since  there  were  no  deities  and  no  idols,  there  were  no 
priests ;  but  the  want  of  a  priesthood  was  more  than  com- 
pensated by  the  wizards,  for  among  the  Kafirs,  as  among 
other  primitive  peoples,  there  was  and  is  an  absolute  belief 
in  the  power  of  spells,  and  of  sorcery  generally.  These  wiz- 
ards, like  the  medicine  men  among  the  Red  Indians,  were 
an  important  class,  second  only  to  the  chiefs.  They  were 
not  a  caste,  though  very  often  the  son  of  a  wizard  would  be 
brought  up  to  the  profession.  The  practitioners  were  on 
the  lookout  for  promising  boys,  and  would  take  and  train 
one  to  witchcraft,  imparting  their  secrets,  which  included 
a  remarkable  knowledge  of  the  properties  of  various  plants 
available  for  poison  or  healing.  Sometimes  the  wizard 
acted  as  a  physician ;  sometimes  he  would  attempt  to  make 
rain ;  sometimes  he  would  profess  to  deliver  messages  from 
the  unseen  world,  and  in  these  cases  he  might  become  a 
terrible  power  for  mischief.  Such  a  revelation  made  to 
the  Kosa  clans  on  the  south  coast  in  1856-57,  directing 
them  to  kUl  their  cattle  and  destroy  their  grain,  because 
the  ghosts  of  their  ancestors  were  coming  to  drive  out  the 
whites,  led  to  the  death  by  famine  of  more  than  30,000 
people.  Such  a  revelation  proceeding  from  a  soothsayer, 
occasionally  called  the  Mlimo,  who  dwelt  in  a  cavern  among 
granite  rocks  in  the  Matoppo  HiUs  at  a  place  called  Mato- 
jeni,  southeast  of  Bulawayo  ^  (oracles  have  always  tended 
to  come  from  caves),  had  much  to  do  with  the  rising  of  the 
MatabiU  in  1896.  But  the  most  frequent  and  most  formi- 
dable work  done  by  the  wizard  was  that  of  "  smelling  out " 
persons  who  were  bewitching  others  so  as  to  cause  sickness  or 

1  This  Mlimo — whether  the  name  is  properly  applicable  to  the 
divinity,  whatever  it  was,  or  to  the  prophet,  seems  doubtful— be- 
longed to  the  Makalakas,  but  was  revered  by  the  Matabili  who  con- 
quered them. 


94 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


misfortune.  In  this  branch  of  his  profession  the  wizaxdof  ten 
became  the  engine  of  the  jealousy  or  rapacity  of  the  chief, 
who  would  secretly  prompt  him  to  denounce  a  prominent  or 
a  wealthy  man.  Suspicion  being  once  roused,  the  vdctim 
had  little  chance :  he  was  despatched,  and  his  property  seized 
by  the  chief.  "Witchcraft,  and  the  murders  it  gave  rise  to, 
have  been  the  darkest  side  of  native  life.  The  sorcerer  has 
usually  been  the  enemy  of  the  missionary,  who  threatens 
his  gains ;  but  his  power  is  now  generally  declining,  and 
the  British  government  forbids  the  practice  of  smelling 
out  witches,  as  well  as  many  other  shocking  and  disgust- 
ing rites  which  used  to  accompany  the  admission  of  boys 
and  girls  to  the  status  of  adults,  or  were  practised  at  sun- 
dry festivals.  Of  the  faith  in  minor  and  harmless  spells  one 
finds  instances  everywhere.  In  Matabililand,  for  instance, 
a  boy  was  pointed  out  to  me  who  had  just  been  occupied 
in  putting  a  charm  into  the  footprint  of  a  lion,  in  order  to 
prevent  the  unwelcome  visitor  from  retm-ning ;  and  nearly 
every  native  wears  some  kind  of  amulet.  These  beliefs 
win  take  a  long  time  to  die,  but  the  missionaries  have  now 
usually  the  good  sense  to  see  that  they  do  little  harm. 

As  their  religious  customs  were  rather  less  sanguinarj^ 
than  those  of  the  Guinea  coast  negroes,  so  the  Kafirs  them- 
selves were  somewhat  more  advanced  in  civilization. 
Compared  with  the  Red  Indians  of  America,  they  stood 
at  a  point  lower  than  that  of  the  Iroquois  or  Cherokees,  but 
superior  to  the  Utes  or  to  the  Diggers  of  the  Pacific  coast. 
They  could  work  in  iron  and  copper,  and  had  some  notions 
of  ornament.  Their  music  was  rude,  but  not  whoUy  devoid 
of  melody,  and  they  used  instruments  of  stone,  wood,  and 
iron,  by  striking  which  a  kind  of  tune  can  be  played. 
They  had  some  simple  games,  and  a  folk-lore  which  con- 
sisted chiefly  in  animal  tales,  resembUng  those  collected 


THE  KAFIRS 


95 


by  Mr.  Harris  and  his  "  Uncle  Remus,"  save  that  the  hare 
plays  among  the  Bantu  peoples  the  part  of  Br'er  Rabbit.^ 
To  poetry,  even  in  its  most  rudimentary  forms,  they  do  not 
seem  to  have  attained.  Yet  they  were  by  no  means  want- 
ing in  intelligence,  and  had,  with  less  gaiety,  more  sense 
of  dignity  and  more  persistence  in  their  purposes  than  the 
Guinea  negro. 

When  the  Portuguese  and  Dutch  first  knew  the  Kafirs, 
they  did  not  appear  to  be  making  any  progress  toward  a 
higher  culture.  Human  life  was  held  very  cheap ;  women 
were  in  a  degraded  state,  and  sexual  morality  at  a  low  ebb. 
Courage,  loyalty  to  chief  and  tribe,  and  hospitality  were 
the  three  prominent  virtues.  War  was  the  only  pursuit  in 
which  chieftains  sought  distinction,  and  war  was  mere 
slaughter  and  devastation,  unaccompanied  by  any  views 
of  policy  or  plans  of  administration.  The  people  were— 
and  indeed  still  are— passionately  attached  to  their  old 
customs,  which  even  a  king  rarely  ventured  to  disturb 
(though  Tshaka  is  said  to  have  abohshed  among  his  sub- 
jects the  rite  of  circumcision,  which  is  generally  practised 
by  the  Kafirs) ;  and  it  was  probably  as  much  the  unwilling- 
ness to  have  their  customs  disturbed  as  the  apprehension 
for  their  land  that  made  many  of  the  tribes  oppose  to  the 
advance  of  the  Europeans  so  obstinate  a  resistance. 
Though  they  feared  the  firearms  of  the  whites,  whom  they 
called  wizards,  it  was  a  long  time  before  they  reaUzed  their 
hopeless  inferiority,  and  the  impossibihty  of  prevailing  in 
war.  Their  minds  were  mostly  too  chUdish  to  recollect  and 

1  Several  collections  have  been  made  of  these  tales.  The  first  is 
that  of  Bishop  Callaway,  the  latest  that  of  my  friend  Mr.  Jaeottel,  a 
Swiss  missionary  in  Basutoland,  who  has  published  a  number  of 
Basuto  stories  in  his  "Contes  Populaires  des  Bassoutos,"  and  of 
Barotse  stories  in  another  book. 


96 


MPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFEICA 


draw  the  necessary  inferences  from  previous  defeats,  and 
they  never  realized  that  the  whites  possessed  beyond  the  sea 
an  inexhaustible  reservoir  of  men  and  weapons.  Even  the 
visit  of  Lo  Bengula's  envoys  to  England  in  1891,  when 
they  were  shown  all  the  wonders  of  London,  in  order  that 
through  them  the  MatabUi  nation  might  be  deterred  from 
the  folly  of  an  attack  on  the  whites,  failed  to  produce  any 
effect.  In  1893  the  young  warriors  clamored  for  war, 
fully  persuaded  that  they  could  destroy  the  few  strangers 
in  their  country  as  easily  as  they  had  overthrown  the  Ma- 
shonas.  The  only  chiefs  who  seem  to  have  fully  grasped 
the  relative  strength  of  the  Europeans,  and  thus  to  have 
formed  schemes  of  policy  suitable  to  their  inferior  position, 
were  Moshesh,  who  profited  by  the  advice  of  the  French 
missionaries,  and  Khama,  who  was  himself  a  Christian 
and  the  pupil  of  missionaries.  Nor  did  any  chief  ever  rise 
to  the  conception  of  forming  a  league  of  blacks  against 
whites. 

The  natives,  as  we  shall  see,  have  had  harsh  treatment 
from  the  Exiropeans.  Many  unjust  things,  many  cruel 
things,  many  things  which  would  excite  horror  if  practised 
in  European  warfare,  have  been  done  against  them.  But 
whoever  tries  to  strike  the  balance  of  good  and  evil  due  to 
the  coming  of  the  whites  must  remember  what  the  condi- 
tion of  the  countrj'  was  before  the  whites  came.  As  be- 
tween the  different  tribes  there  was  neither  justice  nor 
pity,  but  simply  the  rule  of  the  strongest,  unmitigated 
by  any  feeling  of  religion  or  morality.  In  war  non-com- 
batants as  well  as  combatants  were  ruthlessly  slaughtered, 
or  reserved  only  for  slavery ;  and  war  was  the  normal  state 
of  things.  Within  each  tribe  a  measure  of  peace  and  order 
was  maintained.  But  the  weak  had  a  hard  time,  and  those 
who  were  rich,  or  had  roused  the  enmity  of  some  powerful 


THE  KAFIRS 


97 


man,  were  at  any  moment  liable  to  perish  on  the  charge 
of  witchcraft.  In  some  tribes,  such  as  the  Matabili,  in- 
cessant slaughter  went  on  by  the  orders  of  the  king. 
Nothing  less  than  the  prolific  quality  of  the  race  covild 
have  kept  South  Africa  weU  peopled  in  the  teeth  of  such 
a  waste  of  life  as  went  on  by  war  and  murder. 

Of  the  character  of  the  individual  native  as  it  affects 
his  present  relations  with  the  whites,  and  the  probable 
future  of  the  race,  I  shall  have  to  speak  in  a  later  chapter, 
as  also  of  the  condition  and  prospects  of  the  Christian  mis- 
sions which  exist  among  them,  and  which  form  the  main 
civilizing  influence  now  at  work. 


7 


CHAPTER  XI 
THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA  TILL  1854 

IT  is  no  less  true  of  South  Africa  than  it  is  of  the  old 
countries  of  Europe  that  to  understand  the  temper  of 
the  people,  the  working  of  their  government,  the  natui*e 
of  the  political  problems  which  they  have  to  solve,  one 
must  know  something  of  their  history.  South  Africa  has 
had  a  great  deal  of  history,  especially  in  the  present  cen- 
tui-y,  and  there  are  few  places  in  which  recollections  of  the 
past  are  more  powerful  factors  in  the  troubles  of  the  pres- 
ent. In  the  short  sketch  I  propose  to  give  I  shall  advert 
only  to  the  chief  events,  and  particularly  to  those  whose 
importance  is  still  felt  and  which  have  done  most  to  deter- 
mine the  relations  of  the  European  races  to  one  another. 
The  constitutional  and  parliamentary  history  of  the  two 
British  colonies  and  the  two  Boer  republics  has  been  short 
and  not  specially  interesting.  The  military  history  has 
been  on  a  small  scale.  The  economic  and  industrial  his- 
toiy  has  been  simple  and  in  no  way  remarkable.  But  the 
history  of  the  dealings  of  the  white  races  with  one  another 
and  with  the  blacks  is  both  peculiar  and  instructive,  and 
well  deserves  a  far  fuller  narrative  and  far  more  elaborate 
treatment  than  I  have  space  to  give  it. 

Four  European  races  have  occupied  the  country.  Of 

98 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFEICA  TILL  1854  99 

those,  however,  who  came  with  Vasco  da  Gama  from 
Lisbon  in  1497  we  shall  have  little  to  say,  and  of  those 
who  followed  Herr  Luderitz  from  Bremen  in  1883  still 
less.  The  interest  of  the  tale  lies  in  the  struggles  of  two 
branches  of  the  same  Low-German  stock,  the  Dutch  and 
the  English. 

The  first  to  appear  on  the  scene  were  the  men  of  Portu- 
gal, then  in  the  fresh  springtime  of  its  power  and  with 
what  seemed  a  splendid  career  of  discovery  and  conquest 
opening  before  it.^  Bartholomew  Diaz,  whose  renown  has 
been  unjustly  obscured  by  that  of  Vasco  da  Gama,  discov- 
ered the  Cape  of  Storms,  as  he  called  it, — the  name  of 
Good  Hope  was  given  by  King  John  II,— in  1486,  and 
explored  the  coast  as  far  as  the  mouth  of  the  Great 
Fish  River.  In  1497-9.8  Da  Gama,  on  his  famous  voyage 
to  India,  followed  the  southern  and  eastern  coast  to 
MeUnda ;  and  in  1502,  on  his  second  voyage,  after  touch- 
ing at  Delagoa  Bay,  he  visited  Sofala,  which  was  then  the 
port  to  which  most  of  the  gold  and  ivory  came  from  the 
interior.  Here  he  found  Arabs  established  in  the  town, 
as  they  were  in  other  maritime  trading  places  all  the 
way  north  to  Mombasa.  At  what  date  they  first  settled 
here  is  unknown ;  probably  they  had  traded  along  the 
coast  from  times  long  before  Mohammed.  They  were 
superior  to  the  native  blacks,  though  mixed  in  blood,  but  of 
course  far  inferior  to  the  Portuguese,  who  overthrew  their 
power.  In  1505  the  Portuguese  built  a  fort  at  Sofala,  and 
from  there  and  several  other  points  along  the  coast  prose- 
cuted their  trade  with  the  inland  regions,  using  the 
conquered  Arabs  as  their  agents.    For  a  century  they  re- 

1  The  he  it  recent  account  of  the  doings  of  the  Portuguese  is  to  be 
found  in  Dr.  Theal's  book,  "  The  Portuguese  in  South  Africa,"  pub- 
lished in  1896. 


100     ,         IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 

mained  the  sole  masters  not  only  of  the  Southeast  African 
seaboard,  but  of  the  Indian  Ocean,  no  vessel  of  any  other 
European  country  appearing  to  dispute  their  preeminence. 
They  might,  had  they  cared,  have  occupied  and  appro- 
priated the  whole  southern  half  of  the  continent ;  but  in 
the  sixteenth  century  it  was  not  of  colonization,  nor  even 
so  much  of  conquest,  that  monarchs,  governors,  and  na\*i- 
gators  thought,  but  of  gold.  Portugal  had  no  surplus 
population  to  spare  for  settling  her  new  territories,  and— 
not  to  speak  of  Brazil— she  had  a  far  richer  trade  to 
develop  in  western  India  than  anything  which  Africa 
could  offer.  It  may  now  excite  surprise  that  she  should 
have  taken  no  step  to  claim  the  long  stretch  of  countrj- 
whose  shores  her  sailors  had  explored,  from  the  mouth  of 
the  Orange  Eiver  on  the  west  to  that  of  the  Limpopo  on 
the  east.  But  there  was  no  gold  to  be  had  there,  and  a 
chance  skirmish  with  the  Hottentots  in  Table  Bay,  in  which 
the  viceroy  D'Ahneida,  returning  from  India,  was  killed 
in  1510,  gave  them  a  false  notion  of  the  danger  to  be 
feared  from  that  people,  who  were  in  reality  one  of  the 
weakest  and  least  formidable  among  African  races. 

Accordingly,  the  Portuguese,  who  might  have  possessed 
themselves  of  the  temperate  and  healthy  regions  which  we 
now  call  Cape  Colony  and  Xatal,  confined  their  settlements 
to  the  malarious  country  north  of  the  tropic  of  Capricorn. 
Here  they  made  two  or  three  attempts,  chiefly  by  moving 
up  the  valley  of  the  Zambesi,  to  conquer  the  native  tribes, 
or  to  support  against  his  neighbors  some  chieftain  who  was 
to  become  their  vassal.  Their  numbers  were,  however,  too 
small,  and  they  were  too  feebly  supported  from  home,  to 
enable  them  to  secure  success.  When  they  desisted  from 
these  attempts,  their  missionaries,  chiefly  Dominican  friars, 
though  some  Jesuits  were  also  engaged  in  the  work,  main- 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA  TILL  1854  101 


tained  an  active  propaganda  among  the  tribes,  and  at  one 
time  counted  their  converts  by  thousands.  Not  only  mis- 
sionaries, but  small  trading-parties,  penetrated  the  mys- 
terious interior ;  and  one  or  two  light  cannons,  as  well  as 
articles  which  must  have  come  to  Africa  from  India,  such 
as  fragments  of  Indian  and  Chinese  pottery,  have  been 
found  many  hundred  miles  from  the  sea. 

But  on  the  whole  the  Portuguese  exerted  very  little 
permanent  influence  on  the  countiy  and  its  inhabitants. 
The  missions  died  out,  most  of  the  forts  crumbled  away 
or  were  abandoned,  and  all  idea  of  further  conquest  had 
been  dropped  before  the  end  of  last  century.  There  were, 
indeed,  two  fatal  obstacles  to  conquest  or  civilization. 
One  was  the  extreme  unhealthiness  both  of  the  flat  countrj' 
which  lies  between  the  sea  and  the  edge  of  the  great  in- 
terior plateau,  and  of  the  whole  Zambesi  VaUey,  up  which 
most  of  the  attempts  at  an  advance  had  been  made.  Fever, 
not  only  decimated  the  expeditions  and  the  garrisons  f 
the  forts,  but  enervated  the  main  body  of  settlers  who 
remained  on  the  coast,  soon  reducing  whatever  enterprise 
or  vigor  they  had  brought  from  Europe.  The  other  was 
the  tendency  of  the  Portuguese  to  mingle  their  blood  with 
that  of  the  natives.  Very  few  women  were  brought  out 
from  home,  so  that  a  mixed  race  soon  sprang  up,  calling 
themselves  Portuguese,  but  much  inferior  to  the  natives 
of  Portugal.  The  Portuguese,  even  more  than  the  Span- 
iards, have  shown  both  in  BrazU  and  in  Africa  compara- 
tively little  of  that  racial  contempt  for  the  blacks,  and  that 
aversion  to  intimate  social  relations  with  them,  which  have 
been  so  characteristic  of  the  Dutch  and  the  English. 
There  have,  of  course,  been  a  good  many  mulattos  born 
of  Dutch  fathers  in  Africa,  as  of  Anglo-American  fathers 
in  the  West  Indies  and  in  the  former  slave  States  of  North 

7* 


102  IMPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  ATEICA 


America.  But  the  Dutch  or  English  mulatto  was  almost 
always  treated  as  belonging  to  the  black  race,  and  entirely 
below  the  level  of  the  meanest  white,  whereas  among  the 
Portuguese  a  strong  infusion  of  black  blood  did  not  neces- 
sarily carry  with  it  social  disparity.^ 

In  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  Dutch, 
prosecuting  their  war  against  the  Spanish  monarchy,  which 
had  acquired  the  crown  of  Portugal  in  1581  and  held  it  till 
1640,  attacked  the  Portuguese  forts  on  the  East  African 
coast,  but  after  a  few  years  abandoned  an  enterprise,  in 
which  there  was  little  to  gain,  and  devoted  their  efforts  to 
the  more  profitable  field  of  the  East  Indies.  "With  this  ex- 
ception, no  European  power  troubled  the  Portuguese  in 
Africa.  They  had,  however,  frequent  conflicts  with  the 
natives,  and  in  1834  were  driven  from  their  fort  at  Inham- 
bane,  between  Sofala  and  Delagoa  Bay,  and  in  1836  from 
Sof ala  itself,  which,  however,  they  subsequently  recovered. 
It  was  not  till  the  progress  of  inland  discovery,  and  espe- 
cially the  establishment  of  a  Boer  republic  in  the  Trans- 
vaal, had  made  the  coast  seem  valuable  that  two  new  and 
formidable  rivals  appeared  on  the  scene. 

Under  the  combined  operation  of  these  causes  such 
power  as  Portugal  possessed  on  this  coast  declined  during 
the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries.  Except  on  the 
deadly  banks  of  the  Zambesi,  she  never  had  a  permanent 
settlement  more  than  fifty  miles  from  the  coast,  and  very 
few  so  far.  The  population  that  spoke  Portuguese  and 
professed  Chi'istianity  did  not  exceed  a  few  thousands,  and 
of  these  the  large  majority  were  at  least  half  Kafir  in 

1  Maceo,  the  well-known  leader  of  the  Cuban  insurgents  who  was 
Mlled  in  1896,  was  a  mulatto,  in  whose  band  there  were  plenty  of 
pure  whites.  In  no  Southern  State  of  North  America  would  white 
men  have  followed  a  mulatto. 


THE  EUEOPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA  TILL  1854  103 

blood.  It  was  plain  that  such  life  and  force  as  the  nation 
had  possessed  had,  at  any  rate  in  Africa,  died  out,  and  that 
if  ever  the  continent  was  to  be  developed  it  would  not  be 
by  the  race  that  had  fii-st  explored  it.  Here,  therefore, 
we  may  leave  the  eastern  coast  and  the  feeble  settlers, 
who  shivered  with  ague  in  its  swamps,  and  turn  our  eyes 
to  the  far  south,  where  a  new  and  more  vigorous  race  be- 
gan, a  century  and  a  half  after  the  time  of  Vasco  da  Gama, 
to  lay  the  foundations  of  a  new  dominion. 

The  first  Teutonic  people  that  entered  the  African  con- 
tinent were  the  Vandals  in  the  fifth  century.  They  came 
across  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar  as  conquerors,  but  they  soon 
estabUshed  a  powerful  fleet  and  acquired  a  maritime  em- 
pire in  the  western  Mediterranean.  The  second  band  of 
Teutons  to  enter  were  the  Dutch.  They  were  ah-eady  a  sea 
power  powerful  in  the  far  East,  whither  they  had  been  led 
by  their  war  with  Spain.  But  they  did  not  come  as  con- 
querors, nor  even  as  settlers  intending  to  build  up  a  colonial 
community.  They  came  to  establish  a  place  of  call  for  their 
vessels  trading  to  India,  where  fresh  water  might  be  pro- 
cured and  vegetables  be  obtained  for  their  crews,  who 
suffered  terribly  from  scurvy  on  the  voyage  of  six  months 
or  more  from  the  Netherlands  to  the  ports  of  Farther 
India.  From  the  early  years  of  the  seventeenth  century 
both  Dutch  and  English  vessels  had  been  in  the  habit  of 
putting  in  to  Table  Bay  to  refit  and  get  fresh  water.  In- 
deed, in  1620  two  English  commanders  had  landed  there 
and  proclaimed  the  sovereignty  of  King  James  I,  though 
their  action  was  not  ratified  either  by  the  king  or  by  the 
EngHsh  East  India  Company.  In  1648  a  shipwrecked 
Dutch  crew  spent  six  months  in  Table  Valley,  behind  the 
spot  where  Cape  Town  now  stands,  and  having  some  seeds 
with  them,  planted  vegetables  and  got  a  good  crop.  They 


104 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


represented  on  their  return  to  Holland  the  advantages  of 
the  spot,  and  in  1652  three  vessels  despatched  by  the 
Dutch  East  India  Company  disembai'ked  a  body  of  settlers, 
under  the  command  of  Jan  van  Riebeek,  who  were  directed 
to  build  a  fort  and  hospital,  and,  above  aU,  to  raise  vege- 
tables and  obtain  from  the  Hottentots  supplies  of  fresh 
meat  for  passing  ships.  Thus  it  is  from  the  small  begin- 
nings of  a  kitchen-garden  that  Dutch  and  British  dominion 
in  South  Africa  has  grown  up. 

The  history  of  this  Dutch  settlement  presents  a  singular 
contrast  to  that  of  the  Portuguese.  During  the  first  quar- 
ter of  a  century  the  few  settlers  kept  themselves  within  the 
narrow  limits  of  the  Cape  peninsula.  In  1680  an  outly- 
ing agricultural  community  was  planted  at  Stellenbosch, 
twenty-five  miles  from  Cape  Town,  but  not  till  the  end  of 
the  century  was  the  fii'st  range  of  mountains  crossed. 
Meantime  the  population  began  to  grow.  In  1658  the  first 
slaves  were  introduced,— West  African  negroes,— a  deplor- 
able step,  which  has  had  the  result  of  making  the  South 
African  whites  averse  to  open-air  manual  work  and  of  prac- 
tically condemning  South  Africa  to  be  a  country  of  black 
labor.  Shortly  afterward  the  Company  began  to  bring 
in  Asiatic  convicts,  mostly  Mohammedan  Malays,  from 
its  territories  in  the  East  Indian  Archipelago.  These  men 
intermarried  with  the  female  slaves,  and  to  a  less  extent 
with  Hottentot  women,  and  from  them  a  mixed  dark  popu- 
lation has  sprimg  up,which  forms  a  large  part  of  the  popu- 
lation of  Cape  Town  and  the  neighboring  districts.  The 
influx  of  these  inferior  elements  was  balanced  by  the  arrival 
in  1689  of  about  three  hundred  French  Huguenots,  a  part  of 
those  who  had  taken  refuge  in  Holland  after  the  revocation 
of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  by  Louis  XIV.  They  were  persons 
of  a  high  stamp,  more  intelligent  and  educated  than  most  of 


THE  EUEOPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFKICA  TILL  1854  105 


the  previous  settlers  had  been,  and  they  brought  with  them 
a  strong  attachment  to  their  Protestant  faith  and  a  love  of 
liberty.  From  them  many  of  the  best  colonial  families  are 
sprung.  At  first  they  clung  to  their  language,  and  sought 
to  form  a  distinct  religious  community ;  but  they  were  ulti- 
mately compelled  to  join  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church,  and 
the  use  of  French  was  forbidden  in  official  documents  or 
religious  services.  Before  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century  that  language  had  disappeared  and  the  newcomers 
had  practically  amalgamated  with  their  Dutch  neighbors. 
The  Company's  government  was  intolerant,  and  did  not 
until  1780  permit  the  establishment  of  a  Lutheran  church, 
although  many  German  Lutherans  had  settled  in  the 
country. 

From  the  time  when  the  settlers  began  to  spread  out 
from  the  coast  into  the  dry  lands  of  the  interior  a  great 
change  came  upon  them,  and  what  we  now  call  the  distinc- 
tive South  African  type  of  character  and  habits  began  to 
appear.  The  first  immigrants  were  not,  like  many  of  the 
English  settlers  in  Virginia,  men  of  good  social  position  in 
their  own  country,  attached  to  it  by  many  ties,  nor,  like  the 
English  settlers  in  the  New  England  colonies,  men  of  good 
education  and  serious  temper,  seeking  the  freedom  to  wor- 
ship God  in  their  own  way.  They  came  from  the  humbler 
classes,  and  partly  because  they  had  few  home  ties,  partly 
because  the  voyage  to  Holland  was  so  long  that  communi- 
cation with  it  was  difficult,  they  maintained  little  connec- 
tion with  the  mother  country  and  soon  lost  their  feeling 
for  it.  The  Huguenot  immigrants  were  more  cultivated, 
and  socially  superior  to  the  rude  adventurers  who  had 
formed  the  bulk  of  the  Dutch  settlers,  but  they  had  of 
course  no  home  country  to  look  to.  France  had  cast 
them  out ;  Holland  was  alien  in  blood  and  speech.    So  it 


106 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


befell  that  the  South  African  whites  were,  of  all  the  colo- 
nists that  Europe  had  sent  out  since  the  voyage  of  Colum- 
bus, those  who  soonest  lost  their  bond  with  Europe,  and 
were  the  first  set  of  colonists  to  feel  themselves  a  new 
people,  whose  true  home  lay  in  the  new  land  they  had 
adopted.  Thus  early  in  South  African  annals  were  the' 
foundations  laid  of  what  we  now  call  the  Africander  sen- 
timent—a sentiment  which  has  become  one  of  the  main 
factors  in  the  recent  history  of  the  country. 

Nor  was  this  all.  When  the  comparatively  small  area 
of  fertile  land  which  could  be  cultivated  without  irrigation 
had  been  taken  up,  the  keeping  of  cattle  suggested  itself 
as  an  easy  means  of  livelihood.  The  pastiire,  however, 
was  so  thin  that  it  was  necessary  to  graze  the  cattle  over 
wide  stretches  of  ground,  and  the  farther  they  went  into 
the  interior  the  scantier  was  the  pasture  and  the  larger 
therefore  did  the  area  of  land  become  over  which  a  farmer 
let  his  oxen  or  sheep  run.  This  process  of  extending  cattle- 
farms— if  farms  they  can  be  called — over  the  interior  was 
materially  accelerated  through  the  destruction  of  the  nearer 
Hottentot  tribes  by  the  frightful  outbreak  [of  smallpox 
which  began  in  a.  d.  1713,  followed  by  another  not  less 
virulent  in  1755.  The  Europeans  suffered  severely  from  it, 
the  negroes,  slave  and  free,  still  more,  but  the  Hottentots 
most  of  all.  In  fact,  it  cleared  them  away  from  all  the 
southern  and  western  parts  of  the  Colony  and  left  these 
regions  open  to  Europeans.  Only  the  Bushmen  remained, 
whose  more  solitary  life  gave  them  comparative  immunity 
from  contagion.  Thus  from  the  beginning  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  and  during  the  whole  of  it,  there  was  a 
constant  dispersion  of  settlers  from  the  old  nucleus  into 
the  circumjacent  wilderness.  They  were  required  to  pay 
a  sum  amounting  to  five  pounds  (twenty-one  dollars)  a  year 


THE  EUKOPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFEICA  TELL  1854  107 

for  the  use  of  three  thousand  morgen  (six  thousand  acres) 
of  grazing-ground,  and  were  accustomed  at  certain  seasons 
to  drive  their  herds  up  into  the  deserts  of  the  Karroo  for 
a  change  of  feed,  just  after  the  time  when  the  summer 
rains  stimulate  the  scrubby  vegetation  of  that  desert  re- 
gion. These  settlers  led  a  lonely  and  almost  nomadic  life. 
Much  of  their  time  was  passed  in  their  tent- wagons,  in 
which,  with  their  wives  and  children,  they  followed  the 
cattle  from  spot  to  spot  where  the  pasture  was  best.  They 
became  excellent  marksmen  and  expert  in  the  pursuit  of 
wild  beasts.  Some  made  a  living  by  elephant-hunting  in 
the  wilderness,  and  those  who  tended  cattle  learned  to  face 
the  lion.  They  were  much  molested  by  the  Bushmen,  whose 
stealthy  attacks  and  poisoned  arrows  made  them  dangerous 
enemies,  and  they  carried  on  with  the  latter  a  constant 
war,  in  which  no  quarter  was  given.  Thus  there  developed 
among  them  that  courage,  self-reliance,  and  love  of  inde- 
pendence which  are  characteristic  of  the  frontiersman 
everywhere,  coupled  with  a  love  of  solitude  and  isolation 
which  the  conditions  of  western  America  did  not  produce. 
For  in  western  America  the  numbers  and  ferocity  of  the 
Red  Indians,  and  the  resources  of  the  land  encouraging 
the  formation  of  agricultural  and  lumber-producing  com- 
munities, made  villages  follow  the  march  of  discovery  and 
conquest,  while  in  pastoral  South  Africa  villages  were  few 
and  extremely  small.  Isolation  and  the  wild  life  these 
ranchmen  led  soon  told  upon  their  habits.  The  children 
grew  up  ignorant ;  the  women,  as  was  natural  where  slaves 
were  employed,  lost  the  neat  and  cleanly  ways  of  their 
Dutch  ancestors ;  the  men  were  rude,  bigoted,  indifferent  to 
the  comforts  and  graces  of  life.  But  they  retained  their  reli- 
gious earnestness,  carrying  their  Bibles  and  the  practice  of 
daily  family  worship  with  them  in  their  wanderings ;  and 


108 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


they  retained  also  a  passion  for  freedom  which  the  govern- 
ment vainly  endeavored  to  restrain.  Though  magistrates, 
called  landdrosts,  were  placed  in  a  few  of  the  outlying  sta- 
tions, with  assessors  taken  from  the  people,  caRedheemraden, 
to  assist  them  in  administering  justice,  it  was  found  impos- 
sible to  maintain  control  over  the  wandering  cattle-men, 
who,  from  their  habit  of  "trekking" from  place  to  place, 
were  called  Trek  Boers.  The  only  organization  that 
brought  them  together  was  that  which  their  ceaseless 
strife  with  the  Bushmen  enjoined.  Being  aU  accustomed 
to  the  use  of  arms,  they  formed  war-parties,  which  from 
time  to  time  attacked  and  rooted  out  the  Bushmen  from 
a  disturbed  area :  and  the  government  recognized  these 
military  needs  and  methods  by  appointing  field-com- 
mandants to  each  district,  and  subordinate  officers,  called 
field-cornets,  to  each  subdistrict.  These  functionaries  have 
become  the  basis  of  the  system  of  local  government  among 
the  South  African  Dutch,  and  the  war-bands,  called  com- 
mandos, have  played  a  great  part  in  the  subsequent  mili- 
tary history  of  the  country. 

The  eastward  progress  of  expansion  presently  brought 
the  settlers  into  contact  with  more  formidable  foes  in 
the  Bantu  tribes,  who  dwelt  beyond  the  Great  Fish  River. 
In  1779  some  Kafir  clans  of  the  Kosa  race  crossed  that 
river  and  drove  oft  the  cattle  of  the  farmers  to  the  west 
of  it,  and  a  war,  the  fii*st  of  many  fiercely  fought  Kafir 
wars,  followed,  which  ended  in  the  ^dctory  of  the  colonists. 

All  this  while  the  Colony  had  been  ruled  by  the  Dutch 
East  India  Company  through  a  governor  and  council, 
appointed  by  the  directors  in  Holland,  and  responsible 
to  them  only— a  system  roughly  similar  to  that  which  the 
English  established  in  India  during  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury.   The  administration  was  better  or  worse  accord- 


THE  EUEOPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA  TILL  1854  109 


ing  to  the  character  and  capacity  of  the  governor  for 
the  time  being,  but  it  was  on  the  whole  unpopiQar  with 
the  colonists,  not  merely  because  they  were  excluded  from 
aU  share  in  it  (except  to  some  small  extent  in  the  courts  of 
justice),but  also  because  the  Company  kept  in  its  own  hands 
a  monopoly  of  the  trade,  and  managed  trade  with  a  view 
to  its  own  commercial  interests  rather  than  to  those  of  the 
community.  Thus  discontent  grew,  and  this  discontent  was 
one  of  the  causes  which  led  to  the  dispersion  of  the  people 
into  the  wilderness,  whose  remoteness  secured  to  them  a 
practical  freedom.  In  1779  disaffection  had  been  so  much 
stimulated  by  the  maladministration  of  a  weak  governor, 
and  by  the  news  of  the  revolt  of  the  American  colonies 
against  Great  Britain,  that  delegates  were  sent  to  Holland 
to  demand  redress  for  their  commercial  and  other  griev- 
ances, as  weU  as  a  share  in  the  government  of  the  Col- 
ony. The  Company  was  by  this  time  in  financial  straits, 
and  less  powerful  with  the  States-general  of  the  Nether- 
lands than  it  had  formerly  been.  Long  negotiations  fol- 
lowed, reforms  were  promised,  and  at  last,  in  1792,  two 
commissioners  were  sent  out  to  investigate  and  frame 
measures  of  reform.  The  measures  they  promulgated 
were,  however,  deemed  inadequate  by  the  more  ardent 
spirits,  and  by  those  especially  who  dwelt  in  the  outljdng 
districts,  where  the  government  had  exerted,  and  could 
exert,  little  control.  In  1795,  first  at  Graaf-Reinet  and 
then  at  SweUendam,  the  people  rose  in  revolt,  not,  as  they 
stated,  against  the  mother  country,  but  against  the  Com- 
pany. They  turned  out  the  landdrosts,  and  set  up  minia- 
ture republics,  each  with  a  representative  assembly. 

It  would  not  have  been  difficult  for  the  government  to 
have  reduced  these  risings  by  cutting  off  supplies  of  food. 
But  now  South  Africa  was  suddenly  swept  into  the  great 


110 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


whirlpool  of  European  politics,  and  events  were  at  hand 
which  made  these  petty  local  movements  insignificant, 
save  in  so  far  as  they  were  evidences  of  the  independent 
spirit  of  the  people. 

From  1757,  when  the  battle  of  Plassey  was  fought,  the 
English  power  in  India  had  been  rapidly  growing,  and  the 
Cape,  which  they  had  not  cared  to  acquire  in  1620,  had 
now  become  in  their  eyes  a  station  of  capital  importance. 
When  war  broke  out  between  Britain  and  Holland  in  1781, 
the  English  had  attempted  to  seize  the  Colony,  but  retired 
when  they  found  a  strong  French  force  prepared  to  aid  the 
Dutch  in  its  defense.  Now  they  were  again  at  war  with  Hol- 
land, which,  overnm  by  the  armies  of  revolutionary  France, 
had  become  the  Batavian  Republic.  In  1795  an  English  ex- 
pedition, bearing  orders  from  the  Stadholder  of  the  Nether- 
lands, then  a  refugee  in  England,  requiring  the  Company's 
officers  to  admit  them,  landed  at  Simon's  Bay,  and  after 
some  slight  resistance  obliged  Cape  Town  and  its  castle  to 
capitulate.  Within  a  few  months  the  insurgents  at  Swel- 
lendam  and  Graaf-Reinet  submitted,  and  British  troops 
held  the  Colony  tiH  1802,  when  it  was  restored  to  the 
Batavian  Repubhc  on  the  conclusion  of  the  peace  of 
Amiens.  Next  year,  however,  war  broke  out  afresh,  and 
the  English  government,  feeling  the  extreme  importance, 
in  the  great  struggle  which  they  were  waging  with  Napo- 
leon, of  possessing  a  naval  stronghold  as  a  half-way  house 
to  India,  resolved  again  to  occupy  the  Cape.  In  1806  a 
strong  force  was  landed  iu  Table  Bay,  and  after  one  en- 
gagement the  Dutch  capitulated.  In  1814  the  English 
occupation  was  turned  into  permanent  sovereignty  by  a 
formal  cession  of  the  Colony  on  the  part  of  the  then  re- 
stored Stadholder,  who  received  for  it  and  certain  Dutch 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA  TILL  1854  111 

possessions  in  South  America  the  sum  of  six  million  pounds 
sterling  (thirty  million  dollars). 

The  European  population  of  the  Colony,  which  was  then 
finally  transferred  to  the  rule  of  a  foreign  though  a  cog- 
nate nation,  consisted  in  1806  of  about  27,000  persons, 
mostly  of  Dutch,  with  a  smaller  number  of  German  or 
French,  descent.  They  had  some  30,000  black  slaves,  and 
of  the  aboriginal  Hottentots  about  17,000  remained. 
Nearly  all  spoke  Dutch,  or  rather  the  rude  local  dialect 
into  which  the  Dutch  of  Holland  had  degenerated,  for  the 
descendants  of  the  Huguenots  had  long  since  lost  their 
French. 

No  people  likes  being  handed  over  to  the  government 
of  a  different  race,  and  the  British  administration  in 
the  Colony  in  those  days  was  of  com'se,  though  re- 
strained by  the  general  principles  of  English  law,  ne- 
cessarily somewhat  autocratic,  because  no  representative 
institutions  had  ever  existed  at  the  Cape.  Still  things 
promised  well  for  the  future  peace  and  ultimate  fusion  of 
the  Dutch  and  English  races.  They  were  branches  of  the 
same  Low- German  stock,  separated  by  fourteen  hundred 
years  of  separate  history,  but  similar  in  the  fundamental 
bases  of  their  respective  characters.  Both  were  attached 
to  liberty,  and  the  British  had  indeed  enjoyed  at  home  a 
much  fuller  measure  of  it  than  had  the  Dutch  in  the 
settled  parts  of  the  Colony.  Both  professed  the  Protestant 
religion,  and  the  Dutch  were  less  tolerant  toward  Roman 
Catholics  than  the  English.  The  two  languages  retained 
so  much  resemblance  that  it  was  easy  for  an  Englishman 
to  learn  Dutch  and  for  a  Dutchman  to  learn  English.  An 
observer  might  have  predicted  that  the  two  peoples  would 
soon,  by  intercourse  and  by  intermarriage,  melt  into  one,  as 


112 


IMPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


Dutch  and  English  had  done  in  New  York.  For  a  time  it 
seemed  as  if  this  would  certainly  come  to  pass.  The  first 
two  British  governors  were  men  of  high  character,  whose 
administration  gave  little  ground  for  complaint  to  the  old 
inhabitants.  The  Company's  restrictions  on  trade  had  been 
abolished,  and  many  reforms  were  introduced  by  the  new 
rulers.  Schools  were  founded,  the  administration  of  jus- 
tice was  reorganized  under  new  courts,  the  breed  of  cattle 
and  horses  was  improved,  the  slave-trade  was  forbidden, 
and  missions  to  the  natives  were  largely  developed.  Mean- 
while local  institutions  were  scarcely  altered,  and  the  official 
use  of  the  Dutch  language  was  maintained.  The  Roman- 
Dutch  law,  which  had  been  in  force  under  the  Company's 
rule,  was  permitted  to  remain,  and  it  is  to-day  the  common 
law  of  all  the  British  colonies  and  territories,  as  well  as  of 
the  Boer  republics,  in  South  Africa.  Intermarriage  began, 
and  the  social  relations  of  the  few  English  who  had  come 
in  after  1806  with  the  many  Dutch  were  friendly.  In 
1820  the  British  government  sent  out  about  five  thousand 
emigrants  from  England  and  Scotland,  who  settled  in  the 
thinly  occupied  countrj'  round  Algoa  Bay  on  the  eastern 
border  of  the  Colony ;  and  from  that  time  on  there  was  a 
steady,  though  never  copious,  influx  of  British  settlers, 
through  whose  presence  the  use  of  the  English  language 
increased,  together  with  a  smaller  influx  of  Germans,  who 
soon  lost  their  national  indi\dduality  and  came  to  speak 
either  Enghsh  or  the  local  Dutch. 

Before  long,  however,  this  fair  promise  of  peace  and 
union  was  overclouded,  and  the  causes  which  checked  the 
fusion  of  the  races  in  the  Colony,  and  created  two  Dutch 
republics  beyond  its  limits,  have  had  such  momentous  re- 
sults that  they  need  to  be  clearly  stated. 

The  first  was  to  be  found  in  the  character  of  the  Dutch 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA  TILL  1854  113 


population.  They  were  farmers,  a  few  dwelling  in  villages 
and  cultivating  the  soil,  but  the  majority  stock-farmers, 
living  scattered  over  a  wide  expanse  of  country,  for  the 
thinness  of  the  pasture  had  made  and  kept  the  stock-farms 
very  large.  They  saw  little  of  one  another,  and  nothing  of 
those  who  dwelt  in  the  few  towns  which  the  Colony  pos- 
sessed. They  were  ignorant,  prejudiced,  strongly  attached 
to  their  old  habits,  impatient  of  any  control.  The  oppor- 
tunities for  intercourse  between  them  and  the  British  were 
thus  so  few  that  the  two  races  acquired  very  little  know- 
ledge of  one  another,  and  the  process  of  social  fusion, 
though  easy  at  Cape  Town  and  wherever  else  the  popula- 
tion was  tolerably  dense,  was  extremely  slow  over  the  coun- 
try at  large.  A  deplorable  incident  which  befeU  on  the 
eastern  border  in  1815  did  much  to  create  bad  blood.  A 
slight  rising,  due  to  the  attempted  arrest  of  a  farmer  on  a 
charge  of  maltreating  his  native  servant,  broke  out  there. 
It  was  easily  suppressed,  but  of  the  prisoners  taken  six 
were  condemned  to  death  and  five  were  hanged.  This 
harsh  act,  which  was  at  the  time  justified  as  a  piece  of 
"necessary  firmness," produced  wide-spread  and  bitter  re- 
sentment, and  the  mention  of  Slagter's  Nek  continued  for 
many  years  to  awaken  an  outburst  of  anti- British  feeling 
among  the  Boers. 

A  second  cause  was  the  unwisdom  of  the  British  authori- 
ties in  altering  (between  1825  and  1828)  the  old  system  of 
local  government  (with  the  effect  of  reducing  the  share  in 
it  which  the  citizens  had  enjoyed),  and  in  substituting  Eng- 
lish for  Dutch  as  the  language  to  be  used  in  official  docu- 
ments and  legal  proceedings.  This  was  a  serious  hardship, 
for  probably  not  more  than  one  sixth  of  the  people  under- 
stood English.  A  third  source  of  trouble  arose  out  of  the 
wars  with  the  Kafirs  on  the  eastern  border.    Since  the  first 

8 


114  DIPRESSIOXS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


hostilities  of  1779  there  had  been  four  serious  struggles 
with  the  tribes  who  lived  beyond  the  Fish  River,  and  in 
1834  a  host  of  savages  suddenly  burst  into  the  Colony, 
sweeping  off  the  cattle  and  killing  the  farmers.  After  some 
hard  fighting  the  Kafirs  were  reduced  to  sue  for  peace,  and 
compelled  by  the  governor  to  withdraw  beyond  the  Keis- 
kama  River.  But  the  British  government  at  home,  con- 
sidering that  the  natives  had  been  ill-treated  by  the  colo- 
nists, and  in  fact  provoked  to  war,  overruled  the  governor, 
and  allowed  them  to  return  to  their  old  seats,  where  they 
were,  no  doubt,  a  source  of  danger  to  the  border  farmers. 
Thinking  the  home  authorities  either  weak  or  perverse, 
the  farmers  bitterly  resented  this  action,  and  began  to  look 
on  the  British  Colonial  Office  as  their  enemy. 

But  the  main  grievance  arose  out  of  those  native  and 
color  questions  which  have  ever  since  continued  to  trouble 
South  Africa.  Slavery*  had  existed  in  the  Colony  since 
1658,  and  had  produced  its  usual  consequences,  the  deg- 
radation of  labor,  and  the  notion  that  the  black  man 
has -no  rights  against  the  white.  In  1737  the  first  Mo- 
ravian mission  to  the  Hottentots  was  frowned  upon, 
and  a  pastor  who  had  baptised  natives  found  himself 
obliged  to  return  to  Europe.  The  current  of  feeling  in 
Europe,  and  especially  in  England,  which  condemned  the 
"  domestic  iustitutiou  "  and  sought  to  vindicate  the  human 
rights  of  the  negro,  had  not  been  felt  iu  this  remote  comer 
of  the  world,  and  from  about  1810  onward  the  English 
missionaries  gave  intense  offense  to  the  colonists  by  espous- 
ing the  cause  of  the  natives  and  the  slaves,  and  reporting 
every  case  of  cruel  or  harsh  treatment  which  came  to  their 
knowledge.  It  is  said  that  they  often  exaggerated,  or 
made  charges  on  insufficient  e\'idence,  and  this  is  likely 
enough.    But  it  must  also  be  remembered  that  they  were 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA  TILL  1854  115 


the  only  protectors  the  blacks  had ;  and  where  slavery 
exists,  and  a  weak  race  is  dominated  by  a  strong  one,  there 
are  sure  to  be  many  abuses  of  power.  When,  in  1828, 
Hottentots  and  other  free  colored  people  were  placed  by 
governmental  ordinance  on  an  equal  footing  with  whites 
as  regards  private  civil  rights,  the  colonists  were  pro- 
foundly disgusted,  and  their  exasperation  was  increased 
by  the  enactment  of  laws  restraining  their  authority  over 
their  slaves,  as  well  as  by  the  charges  constantly  brought 
against  them  by  the  missionaries  of  ill-treating  the  natives. 
Finally,  in  1834,  the  British  ParHament  passed  a  statute 
emancipating  the  slaves  throughout  all  the  British  colo- 
nies, and  awarding  a  sum  of  twenty  miUion  pounds  ster- 
ling as  compensation  to  the  slave-owners.  The  part  of 
this  sum  allotted  to  Cape  Colony  (a  little  more  than  three 
million  pounds  sterHng)  was  considerably  below  the  value 
of  the  slaves  (about  39,000)  held  there,  and  as  the  compen- 
sation was  made  payable  in  London,  most  slave-owners 
sold  their  claims  at  inadequate  prices.  Many  farmers  lost 
the  bulk  of  their  property,  and  labor  became  in  many  dis- 
tricts so  scarce  that  agriculture  could  hardly  be  carried  on. 
The  irritation  produced  by  the  loss  thus  suffered,  intensi- 
fying the  already  existing  discontent,  set  up  a  ferment 
among  the  Dutch  farmers.  Their  spirit  had  always  been 
independent,  and  the  circumstances  of  their  isolated  life  had 
enabled  them  to  indulge  it.  Even  under  the  government 
of  their  Dutch  kinsfolk  they  had  been  restless,  and  now 
they  received,  as  they  thought,  one  injustice  after  another 
at  the  hands  of  alien  rulers.  To  be  watched  and  denounced 
by  the  missionaries,  to  have  black  people  put  on  a  level 
with  them,  to  lose  the  fruits  of  their  victory  over  the 
Kafirs— all  these  things  had  been  bad  enough.  Now, 
however,  when  their  property  itself  was  taken  away  and 


116 


IMPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


slavery  abolislied  on  grounds  they  could  neither  imder- 
stand  nor  approve,  they  determined  to  endure  no  longer, 
and  sought  for  some  means  of  deliverance.  Rebellion 
against  so  strong  a  power  as  that  of  Britain  was  evidently 
foredoomed  to  failiu'e.  But  to  the  north  and  east  a  great 
wild  country  lay  open  before  them,  where  they  could  lead 
that  solitary  and  half-nomadic  Hfe  which  they  loved, 
preserve  their  old  customs,  and  deal  with  the  natives  as 
they  pleased,  imvexed  by  the  meddlesome  EngUsh.  Ac- 
cordingly, many  resolved  to  quit  the  Colony  altogether  and 
go  out  into  the  wilderness.  They  were  the  more  disposed  to 
this  course,  because  they  knew  that  the  wars  and  conquests 
of  Tshaka,  the  ferocious  Zulu  king,  had  exterminated  the 
Kafir  population  through  parts  of  the  interior,  which  there- 
fore stood  open  to  European  settlement.  Thus  it  was  that 
the  Great  Trek,  as  the  Dutch  call  it,— the  great  emigra- 
tion, or  secession,  as  we  should  say, — of  the  Dutch  Boers 
began  in  1836,  twenty-five  years  before  another  question 
of  color  and  slavery  brought  about  a  still  greater  seces- 
sion on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic. 

If  the  reader  will  here  refer  to  the  map,  and  measure 
from  Cape  Town  a  distance  of  about  four  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  to  the  east  (to  the  mouth  of  the  Great  Fish 
River),  and  aboxit  the  same  distance  to  the  north-northeast 
(to  where  the  towns  of  Middelburg  and  Colesberg  now 
stand),  he  will  obtain  a  pretty  fair  idea  of  the  limits  of 
European  settlement  in  1836.  The  outer  parts  of  this 
area  toward  the  north  and  east  were  verj-  thinly  peopled, 
and  beyond  them  there  was  a  vast  wilderness,  into  which 
only  a  few  hunters  had  penetrated,  though  some  farmers 
had,  during  the  last  decade  or  two,  been  accustomed  to 
drive  their  flocks  and  herds  into  the  fringe  of  it  after  the 
rains,  in  search  of  fresh  pastures.  The  regions  still  farther 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA  TILL  1854  117 


to  the  north  and  northeast  were  almost  entirely  unexplored. 
They  were  full  of  wild  beasts,  and  occupied  here  and  there 
by  native  tribes,  some,  like  the  various  branches  of  the 
Zulu  race,  eminently  fierce  and  warlike.  Large  tracts, 
however,  were  believed  to  be  empty  and  desolate,  owing 
to  the  devastations  wrought  during  his  twenty  years  of 
reign  by  Tshaka,  who  had  been  murdered  eight  years  be- 
fore. Of  the  existence  of  mineral  wealth  no  one  dreamed. 
But  it  was  believed  that  there  was  good  grazing-land  to  be 
found  on  the  uplands  that  lay  north  of  the  great  Quath- 
lamba  Range  (where  now  the  map  shows  the  Orange  Free 
State  and  the  Transvaal  Republic).  More  to  the  south 
lay  the  territory  we  now  call  Natal.  It  was  described  by 
those  very  few  persons  who  had  explored  it  as  fertile  and 
well  watered,  a  country  fit  both  for  tdlage  and  for  pasture ; 
but  wide  plains  and  high  mountains  had  to  be  crossed  to 
reach  it  by  land  from  the  northwest,  and  close  to  it  on 
the  northeast  was  the  main  body  of  the  Zulu  nation,  under 
King  Dingaan,  the  brother  and  successor  of  Tshaka. 

Into  this  vast  wilderness  did  the  farmers  set  forth, 
and  though  some  less  laudable  motives  may  have  been 
mingled  with  the  love  of  independence  and  the  resentment 
at  injustice  which  mainly  prompted  their  emigration, 
it  is  impossible  not  to  admire  their  strenuous  and  valiant 
spirit.  They  were  a  religious  people,  knowing  no  book  but 
the  Bible,  and  they  deemed  themselves,  like  many  another 
religious  people  at  a  like  crisis  of  then-  fortunes,  to  be 
under  the  special  protection  of  Heaven,  as  was  Israel  when 
it  went  out  of  Egypt  into  a  wilderness  not  so  vast  nor  so 
full  of  perils  as  was  that  which  the  Boers  were  entering. 
Escaping  from  a  sway  which  they  compared  to  that  of  the 
Egyptian  king,  they  probably  expected  to  be  stopped  or 
turned  back.    But  Pharaoh,  though  he  had  turned  a  deaf 

8* 


118  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


ear  to  their  complaints,  was  imbued  with  the  British  spiiit 
of  legality.  He  consulted  his  attorney-general,  and  did 
not  pursue  them.  The  colonial  government  saw  with  con- 
cern the  departure  of  so  many  useful  subjects.  But  it  was 
advised  that  it  had  no  legal  right  to  stop  them,  so  it  stood 
by  silently  while  party  after  party  of  emigrants— each 
householder  with  his  wife  and  his  little  ones,  his  flocks 
and  his  herds  and  all  his  goods— took  its  slow  way  from 
the  eastern  or  northern  parts  of  the  Colony,  up  the  slopes 
of  the  coast  range,  and  across  the  passes  that  lead  into  the 
high  plateau  behind.  Within  two  years  from  6000  to 
10,000  persons  set  forth.  They  traveled  in  large,  covered 
wagons  drawn  by  ten  or  twelve  yoke  of  oxen,  and  they 
were  obliged  to  travel  in  parties  of  no  great  size,  lest  their 
cattle  should  exhaust  the  pasture  along  the  track  they  fol- 
lowed. There  was,  however,  a  general  concert  of  plan 
among  them,  and  most  of  the  smaller  groups  united  at 
spots  previously  fixed  upon  for  a  rendezvous.  All  the 
men  were  armed,  for  the  needs  of  defense  against  the 
Bushmen,  and  the  passion  for  killing  game,  had  made  the 
farmers  expert  in  the  use  of  the  rifle.  As  marksmen  they 
were  unusually  steady  and  skilful,  and  in  the  struggles  that 
followed  nothing  but  their  marksmanship  saved  them. 
Few  now  survive  of  those  who  took  part  in  this  Great  Trek, 
but  among  those  few  is  Paul  Kruger,  now  President  of  the 
South  African  Republic,  who  followed  his  father's  cattle 
as  they  were  driven  forward  across  the  prairie,  being  then 
a  boy  of  ten. 

I  have  not  space  to  tell,  save  in  the  briefest  outline,  the 
striking  and  romantic  story  of  the  wanderings  of  the 
emigrant  Boers  and  their  conflicts  with  the  native  tribes. 
The  first  party,  like  the  first  host  of  Crusaders  that  started 
for  the  East  in  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century,  perished 


THE  EUEOPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA  TILL  1854  119 


miserably.  It  consisted  of  ninety-eight  persons  traveling 
with  thirty  wagons.  They  penetrated  far  to  the  northeast, 
into  what  is  now  the  territory  of  the  Transvaal  Republic. 
Some  were  cut  off  by  the  natives ;  some,  reduced  to  a  mere 
handful  by  fever  and  by  the  loss  of  their  cattle,— for  they 
had  ventured  into  the  unhealthy  lower  country  to  the  south- 
east of  the  mountains,  where  the  tsetse-fly  abounds,— made 
their  way  to  the  coast  at  Delagoa  Bay.  Another  party, 
formed  by  the  union  of  a  number  of  smaller  bodies  at  Thaba 
'Ntshu,  a  rocky  peak  in  the  Orange  Free  State,  visible  on  the 
eastern  horizon  from  the  present  town  of  Bloemfontein, 
advanced  thence  to  the  north,  and  presently  came  in  con- 
tact with  a  redoubtable  branch  of  the  Zulu  race,  famous  in 
later  history  under  the  name  of  Matabili.  This  tribe 
was  then  ruled  by  the  chief  UmziUkazi,  or  Mosilikatze, 
a  warrior  of  great  energy  and  talent.  He  had  been  one 
of  Tshaka's  favorite  generals,  but,  having  inciuTed 
that  king's  displeasure,  had  fled,  about  a.  d.  1817,  with 
his  regiment  to  the  northwest,  and  established  his  head- 
quarters near  a  place  called  Mosega  (between  Pretoria 
and  Mafeking),  in  what  is  now  the  Transvaal  Republic. 
From  here  he  raided  and  massacred  the  Bechuanas  and 
other  tribes  of  this  region,  though  himself  unable  to  with- 
stand the  main  Zulu  nation,  which,  under  Dingaan,  was 
living  farther  to  the  south.  The  Matabili  provoked  war 
by  falling  upon  and  destroying  a  detachment  of  the  emi- 
grants. Intruders  the  latter  doubtless  were,  but,  as  the 
Matabili  themselves  had  slaughtered  without  mercy  the 
weaker  Kafir  tribes,  the  Boers  might  think  they  need  not 
feel  any  compunction  in  dealing  out  the  Uke  measure  to 
their  antagonists.  And,  in  point  of  fact,  the  emigrants  seem 
all  through  to  have  treated  the  natives  much  as  Israel 
treated  the  natives  of  Canaan,  and  to  have  conceived  them- 


120 


IMPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


selves  to  have  Old  Testament  authoritj'  for  occupying  the 
territories  of  the  heathen,  and  reducing  them  by  the  stern- 
est methods  to  serfdom  or  submission.  Here  they  had  an 
unprovoked  massacre  to  avenge,  and  they  showed  equal 
promptitude  and  courage.  Pouncing  upon  Mosilikatze, 
they  defeated  his  vastly  superior  force  with  so  great  a 
slaughter  that  he  fled  northwestward  far  away  beyond  the 
Limpopo  River,  and  feU  like  a  thunder-bolt  upon  the 
tribes  who  dwelt  between  that  stream  and  the  Zambesi, 
killing  many  and  making  slaves  of  the  rest.  Here,  with 
the  king's  ki*aal  of  Bulawayo  for  its  capital,  was  established 
the  kingdom  of  the  MatabUi,  which  remained  as  a  teiTor 
to  its  neighbors  till,  in  its  turn,  destroyed  by  Dr.  Jameson 
and  the  British  South  Africa  Company  in  1893.  It  was  a 
curious  chain  of  events  that  brought  fire  and  slaughter  so 
suddenly,  in  1837,  upon  the  peoples  of  the  Zambesi  YaUey. 
As  the  conflicts  of  nomad  warriors  along  the  Great  WaU 
of  China  in  the  fourth  century  of  our  era  set  a-going  a 
movement  which,  propagated  from  tribe  to  tribe,  ended 
by  precipitating  the  Goths  upon  the  Roman  empire,  and 
brought  Alaric  to  the  Salarian  Gate  of  Rome,  so  the  weak- 
ness of  the  French  monarchy,  inducing  the  Revolution  and 
the  consequent  war  with  England,  carried  the  English  to 
the  Cape,  brought  the  Boers  into  coDision  with  the  Mata- 
bni,  and  at  last  hurled  the  savage  host  of  MosiUkatze  on 
the  helpless  Makalakas. 

The  defeat  and  expulsion  of  the  MatabiH  left  the  vast  ter- 
ritories between  the  Orange  River  and  the  Limpopo  in  the 
hands  of  the  Boer  immigrants.  Within  these  territories, 
after  much  moving  hither  and  thither,  those  small  and 
rude  communities  began  to  grow  up  which  have  ripened, 
as  we  shaU  presently  see,  into  the  two  Dutch  republics 
of  our  own  time.    But,  meanwhile,  a  larger  and  better  or- 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA  TILL  1854  121 


ganized  body  of  Boers,  led  by  a  capable  and  much-respected 
man  named  Pieter  Retief,  marched  first  eastward  and 
then  southward  across  the  Quathlamba  watershed,  and  de- 
scended from  the  plateau  into  the  richer  and  warmer 
country  between  those  mountains  and  the  Indian  Ocean. 
This  region  had  been  in  1820  almost  depopulated  by  the 
invasions  of  Tshaka,  and  now  contained  scarce  any  native 
inhabitants.  A  few  Englishmen  had  since  1824  been 
settled  on  the  inlet  then  called  Port  Natal,  where  now  the 
prosperous  ^town  of  Durban  lies  beneath  the  villas  and 
orchards  of  Berea,  and  (having  obtained  a  cession  of  the 
maritime  strip  from  King  Tshaka)  were  maintaining  there 
a  sort  of  provisional  republic.  In  1835  they  had  asked  to 
be  recognised  as  a  colony  under  the  name  of  Victoria,  and 
to  have  a  legislature  granted  them.  The  British  govern- 
ment, however,  was  stUl  hesitating  whether  it  should  oc- 
cupy the  port,  so  the  emigrants  did  not  trouble  themselves 
about  it.  Thinking  it  well  to  propitiate  the  Zulu  king, 
Dingaan,  whose  power  overshadowed  the  country,  the  Boer 
leaders  proceeded  to  his  kraal  to  obtain  from  him  a  formal 
grant  of  land.  The  grant  was  m  ade,  but  next  day  the  treach- 
erous tyrant,  offering  them  some  native  beer  as  a  sort  of 
stirrup-cup  before  their  departure,  suddenly  bade  his  men 
fall  upon  and  "kill  the  wizards."  The  excellent  Retief 
perished  with  his  whole  party,  and  a  body  of  emigrants 
not  far  distant  was  similarly  surprised  and  massacred  by 
a  Zulu  army  of  overwhelming  strength.  These  cruelties 
roused  the  rest  of  the  emigrants  to  reprisals,  and  in  a 
fierce  battle,  fought  on  December  16,  1838,  the  anniver- 
sary of  which  is  stUl  celebrated  by  the  people  of  the 
Transvaal,  a  handful  of  Boers  overthrew  Dingaan's 
host.  Like  the  soldiers  of  Cortes  in  Mexico,  they  owed 
this,  as  other  victories,  not  merely  to  their  steady  valor, 


122 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


but  to  their  horses.  Riding  up  to  the  line  of  savage  war- 
riors, they  delivered  a  voUey,  and  rode  back  before  an 
assagai  could  reach  them,  repeating  this  manoeuver  over 
and  over  again  tUl  the  hostile  ranks  broke  and  fled.  Ulti- 
mately then-  forces,  united  with  those  of  a  brother  of 
Dingaan,  who  had  rebelled  against  him  and  had  detached 
a  large  part  of  the  Zulu  warriors,  di'ove  Dingaan  out  of 
Zululand  in  1840.  Panda,  the  rebel  brother,  was  in- 
stalled king  in  his  stead,  as  a  sort  of  vassal  to  the  Boer 
government,  which  they  now  called  the  republic  of 
Natalia,  and  the  Boers  founded  a  city,  Pietermaritzbui'g, 
and  began  to  portion  out  the  land.  They  deemed  the 
British  government  to  have  abandoned  any  claim  to  the 
country  by  the  withdrawal  of  a  detachment  of  troops 
which  had  been  landed  at  Port  Natal  in  1838.  But  their 
action,  and  in  particular  their  ejection  from  the  country'  of 
a  mass  of  Kafii's  whom  they  proposed  to  place  in  a  district 
already  occupied  by  another  tribe,  had  meanwhile  excited 
the  displeasm'e  of  the  government  of  Cape  Colony.  That 
government,  though  it  had  not  followed  them  into  the 
deserts  of  the  interior,  had  never  renounced,  and,  indeed, 
had  now  and  then  reasserted  its  right  to  consider  them 
British  subjects.  They,  however,  repudiated  all  idea  of 
subjection,  holding  British  sovereignty  to  be  purely  terri- 
torial, so  that  when  they  had  passed  out  of  the  region 
which  the  British  crown  claimed  they  had  become  a  fi'ee 
and  independent  people,  standing  alone  in  the  world. 
Their  attempt  to  establish  a  new  white  state  on  the  coast 
became  a  matter  of  serious  concern,  because  it  might 
affect  trade  with  the  interior,  and  plant  in  a  region  which 
Britain  deemed  her  own  the  germ  of  what  might  become 
a  new  maritime  power.  And  as  the  colonial  government 
considered  itself  the  general  protector  of  the  natives,  and 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA  TILL  1854  123 


interested  in  maintaining  the  Kafirs  between  the  Boer 
state  and  Cape  Colony,  the  attacks  of  the  Boers  on  the 
Kafirs  who  lived  to  the  west  of  them,  toward  the  Colony, 
could  not  be  permitted  to  pass  unchecked.  The  British 
government,  though  still  unwilling  to  assume  fresh  re- 
sponsibilities, for  in  those  days  it  was  generally  believed 
that  the  colonial  possessions  of  Britain  were  already  too 
extensive,  yet  ultimately  concluded,  for  the  reasons  given 
above,  to  assert  its  authority  over  Port  Natal  and  the 
country  behind  as  far  as  the  crest  of  the  mountains. 
A  small  force  was  accordingly  sent  to  Port  Natal  in  1842. 
It  was  there  besieged  by  the  Boer  levies,  and  would  have 
been  forced  to  surrender  but  for  the  daring  ten  days'  ride 
through  the  whole  breadth  of  Kaffraria  of  a  young  Eng- 
lishman, Richard  King,  who  brought  the  news  to  Graham's 
Town,  six  hundred  miles  distant.  A  force  sent  by  sea 
relieved  the  starving  garrison  after  a  siege  of  twenty-six 
days.  The  Boer  forces  dispersed,  but  it  was  not  till  a  year 
later  that  the  territory  of  Natal  was  formally  declared  a 
British  colony.  Lord  Stanley,  then  colonial  secretary,  was 
reluctant  to  take  over  the  responsibilities  of  a  new 
dominion  with  a  disaffected  white  population  and  a  mass 
of  savage  inhabitants,  and  only  yielded  to  the  urgent 
arguments  of  Sir  George  Napier,  then  governor  of  the 
Cape.  In  1843,  after  long  and  angry  debates,  the  Volks- 
raad,  or  popular  assembly  of  the  tiny  republic,  submitted 
to  the  British  crown,  having  delivered  a  warm  but  ineffec- 
tual protest  against  the  principle  of  equal  civil  rights  for 
whites  and  blacks  laid  down  by  the  British  government. 
The  colony  of  Natal  was  then  constituted,  first  (1845)  as 
a  dependency  of  Cape  Colony,  afterward  (1856)  as  a 
separate  colony.  A  part  of  the  Boers,  estimated  at  five 
hundred  families,  remained  in  it,  but  the  majority,  includ- 


124  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


ing  all  the  fiercer  spirits,  recrossed  the  mountains  (some 
forthwith,  some  five  years  later),  with  their  goods  and  their 
cattle,  and  joined  the  mass  of  their  feUow-emigrants  who 
had  remained  on  the  plateaus  of  the  interior.  Meanwhile 
an  immense  influx  of  Kafirs,  mostly  from  Zululand, 
although  many  belonged  to  other  tribes  whom  the  Zulus 
had  conquered,  repopulated  the  country,  and  in  it  the 
blacks  have  since  been  about  ten  times  as  numerous  as 
the  whites.  Thus  ended  the  Dutch  republic  of  Natalia, 
after  six  years  of  troubled  life.  While  it  was  fighting 
with  the  Zulus  on  the  east,  and  other  Kafirs  on  the  west, 
it  was  torn  by  incessant  intestine  quarrels,  and  unable 
either  to  levy  taxes,  or  to  compel  for  any  other  purpose 
the  obedience  of  its  own  citizens.  But  its  victories  over 
Dingaan's  armies  were  feats  of  arms  as  remarkable  as 
any  South  Africa  has  seen.  The  Enghsh  are  not  gener- 
ally slow  to  recognize  the  fine  qualities  of  their  adversa- 
ries, but  they  have  done  less  than  justice  to  the  resolution 
and  the  daring  which  the  Boers  displayed  in  these  early 
campaigns  against  the  natives.  ^ 

With  the  EngUsh  annexation  of  Natal  ended  the  first 
of  the  attempts  which  the  emigrant  Boers  have  made  to 
obtain  access  to  the  sea.  It  was  a  turning-point  in  the 
history  of  South  Africa,  for  it  secured  to  Great  Britain  that 
command  of  the  coast  which  has  ever  since  been  seen  to  be 
more  and  more  vital  to  her  predominance,  and  it  estab- 
lished a  new  center  of  English  settlement  in  a  region  tiU 
then  neglected,  from  whence  large  territories,  including 
Zululand  and,  recently,  Tongaland,  have  been  acquired. 
Although  Britain  purported  to  act,  and,  indeed,  in  one 

1  A  clear  and  spirited  account  of  these  events  may  be  found  in 
Mr.  R.  Russell's  book,  "Natal:  The  Land  and  its'  Story,"  published 
in  1894. 


THE  EUEOPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFEICA  TILL  1854  125 

sense  did  act,  in  self-defense,  one  cannot  repress  a  feeling 
that  the  Boer  settlers,  who  had  occupied  a  territory  they 
found  vacant  and  had  broken  the  power  of  the  savage 
Zulu  king,  were  hardly  used.  They  ought,  at  any  rate,  to 
have  had  earlier  notice  of  British  intentions.  But  against 
this  may  be  set  the  fact  that  the  internal  dissensions  which 
rent  the  infant  republic  would  have  sooner  or  later  brought 
it  to  the  ground,  compelling  British  intervention,  and  that 
the  native  races  have  fared  better  under  British  control 
than  they  seemed  likely  to  do  under  that  of  the  Boers, 
whose  behavior  toward  them,  though  little  more  harsh 
than  that  of  the  English  colonists,  has  been  much  less 
considerate  than  that  of  the  Imperial  Government. 

Hardly  less  troubled  was  the  lot  of  the  emigrants  who 
had  scattered  themselves  over  the  wide  uplands  that  lie 
between  the  Orange  River  and  the  Limpopo.  They,  too, 
were  engaged  in  incessant  wars  with  the  native  tribes, 
who  were,  however,  less  formidable  than  the  Zulus,  and 
much  cattle-lifting  went  on  upon  both  sides.  Only  one 
native  tribe  and  one  native  chief  stand  out  from  the  con- 
fused tangle  of  petty  raids  and  forays  which  makes  up 
(after  the  expulsion  of  the  Matabili)  the  earlier  annals  of 
the  Boer  republics.  This  chief  was  the  famous  Moshesh, 
to  speak  of  whose  career  I  may  digress  for  a  moment 
from  the  thread  of  this  narrative.  The  Kafir  races 
have  produced  within  this  century  three  really  remark- 
able men— men  who,  hke  Toussaint  L'Ouverture  in  Hayti, 
and  Kamehameha  I  in  Hawaii,  will  go  down  in  history 
as  instances  of  the  gifts  that  sometimes  show  them- 
selves even  among  the  most  backward  races.  Tshaka,  the 
Zulu,  was  a  warrior  of  extraordinary  energy  and  ambition, 
whose  power  of  organization  enabled  him  to  raise  the  Zulu 
army  within  a  few  years  to  a  perfection  of  drill  and  dis- 


126 


IMPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  APRICA 


eipline  and  a  swiftness  of  movement  whicli  made  them 
irresistible,  except  by  Europeans.  Khama,  the  chief  who 
still  reigns  among  the  Bechuanas,  has  been  a  social  re- 
former and  administrator  of  wonderful  judgment,  tact, 
and  firmness,  who  has  kept  his  people  in  domestic  peace 
and  protected  them  from  the  dangerous  influences  which 
white  civihzation  usuallj'  brings  with  it,  and  especially 
from  strong  drink,  while  at  the  same  time  helping  them 
skilfully  onward  toward  such  improvements  as  their  char- 
acter admits.  Moshesh,  chief  of  the  Basutos,  was  born  in 
the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century.  He  belonged  to  a 
small  clan  which  had  suffered  severely  in  the  wars  caused 
by  the  conquests  of  Tshaka,  whose  attacks  upon  the  tribes 
nearest  him  had  driven  them  upon  other  tribes,  and 
brought  slaughter  and  confusion  upon  the  whole  of 
southeastern  Africa.  Though  only  a  younger  son,  his 
enterprise  and  courage  soon  made  him  a  leader.  The 
progress  of  liis  power  was  aided  by  the  skill  he  showed 
in  selecting  for  his  residence  and  stronghold  a  flat-topped 
hill  called  Thaba  Bosiyo,  fenced  round  by  cliffs,  with  pas- 
ture for  his  cattle,  and  several  springs  of  water.  In  this 
impregnable  stronghold,  from  which  he  drew  his  title  of 
"  chief  of  the  mountain,"  he  resisted  repeated  sieges  by  his 
native  enemies  and  by  the  emigrant  Boers.  The  exploits 
of  Moshesh  against  his  native  foes  soon  brought  adhe- 
rents round  him,  and  he  became  the  head  of  that  powerful 
tribe,  largelj^  formed  out  of  the  fragments  of  other  tribes 
scattered  and  shattered  by  war,  which  is  now  called  the 
Basuto.  Unlike  most  Kafir  warriors,  he  was  singularly 
free  from  cruelty,  and  ruled  his  own  people  with  a  mild- 
ness which  made  him  hked  as  well  as  respected.  In  1832 
he  had  the  foresight  to  in\dte  missionaries  to  come  and 
settle  among  his  people,  and  the  following  year  saw  the 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA  TILL  1854  127 

establishment  of  the  mission  of  the  Evangelical  Society 
of  Paris,  whose  members,  some  of  them  French,  some 
Swiss,  some  Scotch,  have  been  the  most  potent  factors  in 
the  subsequent  history  of  the  Basuto  nation.  When  the 
inevitable  coUision  between  the  Basutos  and  the  white  men 
arrived,  Moshesh,  partly  through  counsels  of  the  mission- 
aries, partly  from  his  own  prudence,  did  his  best  to  avoid 
any  fatal  breach  with  the  British  government.  Neverthe- 
less, he  was  several  times  engaged  in  war  with  the  Orange 
River  Boers,  and  once  had  to  withstand  the  attack  of  a 
strong  British  force  led  by  the  governor  of  Cape  Colony- 
But  his  tactful  diplomacy  made  him  a  match  for  any 
European  opponent,  and  carried  him  through  every  poUt- 
ical  danger.  Moshesh  died,  full  of  years  and  honor, 
about  twenty-five  years  ago,  having  built  up,  out  of  the 
dispersed  remnants  of  broken  tribes,  a  nation  which  has 
now,  under  the  guiding  hand  of  the  missionaries,  and 
latterly  of  the  British  government  also,  made  greater 
progress  in  civiHzation  and  Christianity  than  any  other 
Kafir  race.  Of  its  present  condition  I  shall  speak  in  a 
later  chapter. 

We  may  now  resume  the  story  of  the  fortunes  of  the 
emigrant  Boers  who  had  remained  on  the  landward  or 
northerly  side  of  the  Quathlamba  Range,  or  had  returned 
thither  from  Natal.  In  1843  they  numbered  not  more 
than  15,000  persons  all  told,  possibly  less;  for,  though 
after  1838  fresh  emigrants  from  the  Colony  had  joined 
them,  many  had  perished  in  the  native  wars.  Subse- 
quently, down  to  the  end  of  1847,  these  numbers  were  in- 
creased by  others,  who  returned  from  Natal,  displeased  at 
the  land  settlement  made  there ;  and  while  these  Natalians 
settled,  some  to  the  southwest,  round  Winburg,  others 
farther  north,  in  the  region  between  Pretoria  and  the  Vaal 


128 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


Kiver,  the  earlier  Boer  occupants  of  the  latter  region  moved 
off  stiU  farther  north,  some  to  Lydenburg,  some  to  the 
Zoutpansberg  and  the  country  sloping  to  the  Limpopo 
River.  Thus  the  emigrant  Dutch  were  now  scattered  over 
an  area  seven  hundred  miles  long  and  three  hundred  miles 
wide,  an  area  bounded  on  the  southeast  by  the  Quath- 
lamba  mountain-chain,  but  on  the  north  and  west  divided 
by  no  natural  limit  from  the  great  plain  which  stretches 
west  to  the  Atlantic  and  north  to  the  Zambesi.  They  were 
practically  independent,  for  the  colonial  government 
did  not  attempt  to  interfere  with  their  internal  affairs. 
But  Britain  stiU  claimed  that  they  were,  in  strict  intend- 
ment of  law,  British  subjects,^  and  she  gave  no  recogni- 
tion to  the  governments  they  set  up.  To  have  established 
any  kind  of  administration  over  so  wide  a  territory  would 
have  been  in  any  case  difficult  for  so  smaU  a  body  of 
people,  probably  about  four  thousand  adult  males  ;  but  the 
very  quahties  which  had  enabled  them  to  cany  out  their 
exodus  from  Cape  Colony  and  their  campaigns  of  conquest 
against  the  natives  with  so  much  success  made  the  task  of 
organization  stiU  more  difficult.  They  had  in  an  eminent 
degree  "  the  defects  of  their  qualities."  They  were  self- 
reliant  and  individualistic  to  excess ;  they  loved  not  only 
independence,  but  isolation ;  they  were  resolved  to  make 
their  government  absolutely  popular,  and  little  disposed  to 
brook  the  control  even  of  the  authorities  they  had  them- 
selves created.  They  had,  in  fact,  a  genius  for  disobe- 
dience ;  their  ideal,  if  one  can  attribute  any  ideals  to  them, 

1  Sir  P.  Maitland's  proclamation  of  August  21,  1845,  expressly 
reserved  the  rights  of  the  crown  to  consider  those  who  had  gone 
beyond  Xatal  as  being  still  her  subjects,  notwithstanding  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  settled  government  in  that  Colony.  (See  Bird's 
"Annals  of  Natal,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  468.) 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA  TILL  1854  129 


was  that  of  Israel  in  the  days  when  every  man  did  that 
which  was  right  in  his  own  eyes.  It  was  only  for  warlike 
expeditions,  which  they  had  come  to  enjoy  not  only  for 
the  sake  of  the  excitement,  but  also  because  they  were 
able  to  enrich  themselves  by  the  capture  of  cattle,  that 
they  could  be  brought  together,  and  only  to  their  leaders 
in  war  that  they  would  yield  obedience.  Very  few  had 
taken  to  agriculture,  for  which,  indeed,  the  dry  soil  was 
seldom  fitted,  and  the  haK-nomadic  life  of  stock-farmers, 
each  pasturing  his  cattle  over  great  tracts  of  country, 
confirmed  their  dissociative  instincts.  However,  the 
necessities  of  defense  against  the  natives,  and  a  common 
spirit  of  hostility  to  the  claims  of  sovereignty  which  the 
British  government  had  never  renounced,  kept  them 
loosely  together.  Thus  several  small  repubhcan  communi- 
ties grew  up.  Each  would  have  preferred  to  manage  its 
affairs  by  a  general  meeting  of  the  citizens,  and  some- 
times tried  to  do  so.  But  as  the  citizens  dispersed  them- 
selves over  the  country,  this  became  impossible,  so  author- 
ity, such  slight  authority  as  they  could  be  induced  to 
grant,  was  vested  in  a  small  elective  assembl}'  called  the 
Volksraad  or  Council  of  the  People.  These  tiny  republics 
were  held  together  by  a  sort  of  faintly  federative  tie,  which 
rested  rather  in  a  common  understanding  than  upon  any 
legal  instrument,  and  whose  observance  was  always  sub- 
ject to  the  passion  of  the  moment.  In  the  northeast,  be- 
yond the  Vaal  River,  these  republican  communities,  while 
distracted  by  internal  feuds  chiefly  arising  from  personal 
or  family  enmities,  were  left  undisturbed  by  the  colonial 
government.  They  lived  hundreds  of  miles  from  the  near- 
est British  outpost,  and  their  wars  with  the  Kafirs  scarcely 
affected  those  tribes  with  whom  the  British  authorities 
came  in  contact.    Those  authorities,  as  I  have  already 

9 


130 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


observed,  were  in  those  days,  under  orders  received  from 
home,  anxious  rather  to  contract  than  to  extend  the 
sphere  of  imperial  influence,  and  cared  little  for  what 
happened  far  out  in  the  wilderness,  except  in  so  far  as  the 
presence  of  the  Boers  induced  troubles  among  the  natives. 

It  was  otherwise  with  the  emigrants  who  lived  to  the 
southwest,  between  the  Vaal  River  and  the  frontier  of 
Cape  Colony,  which  was  then  at  the  village  of  Colesberg, 
between  what  is  now  De  Aar  Junction  and  the  upper  course 
of  the  Orange  River.  Here  there  were  endless  bickerings 
between  the  Boers,  the  rapidly  growing  native  tribe  of  the 
Basutos,  and  the  half-breeds  called  Griquas,  hunting-tribes 
sprung  from  Dutch  fathers  and  Hottentot  women,  who, 
intermixed  with  white  people,  and  to  some  extent  civilized 
b}^  the  missionaries,  were  scattered  over  the  country  from 
where  the  town  of  Kimberley  now  stands  southward  to  the 
junction  of  the  Orange  and  Caledon  rivers.  These  quar- 
rels, with  the  perpetual  risk  of  a  serious  native  war  arising 
from  them,  distressed  a  succession  of  governors  at  Cape 
Town  and  a  succession  of  colonial  secretaries  in  Downing 
street.  Britain  did  not  wish  (if  I  may  use  a  commercial 
term  not  unsuited  to  her  state  of  mind)  "  to  increase  her 
holding  "  in  South  Africa.  She  regarded  the  Cape  as  the 
least  prosperous  and  promising  of  her  colonies,  with  an 
arid  soil,  a  population  largely  alien,  and  an  apparently  end- 
less series  of  costly  Kafir  wars.  She  desired  to  avoid  aU 
further  annexations  of  territory,  because  each  annexation 
brought  fresh  responsibilities,  and  fresh  responsibilities  in- 
volved increased  expenditure.  At  last  a  plan  was  proposed 
by  Dr.  Philip,  a  prominent  missionary  who  had  acquired 
influence  with  the  government.  The  missionaries  were 
the  only  responsible  persons  who  knew  much  about  the 
wild  interior,  and  they  were  often  called  on  to  discharge 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA  TILL  1854  131 


functions  similar  to  those  which  the  bishops  performed 
for  the  barbarian  kings  in  western  Europe  in  the  fifth 
and  sixth  centuries  of  our  era.  The  societies  which  they 
represented  commanded  some  influence  in  Parliament; 
and  this  fact  also  disposed  the  Colonial  Office  to  consult 
them.  Dr.  PhUip  suggested  the  creation  along  the  north- 
eastern border  of  native  states  which  should  sever  the 
Colony  from  the  unsettled  districts,  and  should  isolate  the 
more  turbulent  emigrant  Boers  from  those  who  had  re- 
maifled  quietly  in  the  Colony.  This  plan  was  adopted. 
Treaties  were  made  in  1843  with  Moshesh,  the  Basuto 
chief,  and  with  Adam  Kok,  a  Griqua  captain  Living  on  the 
Orange  River,  as  a  treaty  had  been  made  nine  years 
before  with  another  Griqua  leader  named  Waterboer, 
who  Uved  farther  north  (near  the  present  site  of  Kim- 
berley) ;  and  these  three  states,  all  recognized  by  Britain, 
were  intended  to  cover  the  Colony  on  the  side  where 
troubles  were  most  feared.  But  the  arrangement  soon 
broke  down,  for  the  whites  would  not  recognize  a  Griqua 
captain,  while  the  old  troubles  between  them  and  the 
natives  continued.  Accordingly,  a  forward  step  was 
taken  in  1846  by  placing  a  few  British  troops  under  a 
military  resident  at  Bloemfontein,  half-way  between  the 
Orange  and  Vaal  rivers,  to  keep  order  there.  And  in 
1848  the  whole  country  from  the  Orange  to  the  Vaal  was 
formally  annexed  under  the  name  of  the  Orange  River 
Sovereignty.  The  country  had  been  without  any  govern- 
ment, for  the  emigrants  who  dwelt  in  it  had  no  organiza- 
tion of  their  own,  and  did  not  recognize  the  republics 
beyond  the  Vaal. 

This  formal  assertion  of  British  authority  provoked  an 
outbreak  among  those  of  the  emigrants,  mostly  Dutch, 
who  clung  to  their  independence.    Roused  and  rein- 


132  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


forced  by  their  Boer  brethren  from  beyond  the  Vaal,  who 
were  commanded  by  Andries  Pretorius,  the  most  energetic 
and  capable  of  the  emigrant  leaders,  and  the  same  who  had 
besieged  the  British  troops  at  Port  Natal,  they  attacked 
Bloemf ontein,  obliged  the  Resident's  small  force  to  capitu- 
late, and  advanced  south  to  the  Orange  River.  Sir  Harry 
Smith,  then  governor  of  the  Cape,  promptly  moved  for- 
ward a  small  force,  defeated  the  Boers  in  a  sharp  skirmish 
at  Boomplats  (August  29, 1848),  and  reestabhshed  British 
authority  over  the  Sovereignty,  which  was  not,  however, 
incorporated  with  Cape  Colony.  The  Boers  beyond  the 
Vaal  were  left  to  themselves. 

Peace,  however,  was  not  yet  assured.  Fresh  quarrels 
broke  out  among  the  native  tribes,  ending  in  a  war  between 
the  Basutos  and  the  British  Resident.  Unsupported  by  a 
large  section  of  the  local  farmers,  who  remained  dis- 
affected to  the  government,  and  preferred  to  make  their 
own  terms  with  the  Basutos,  and  having  only  a  trifling 
armed  force  at  his  command,  the  Resident  fared  Ul ;  and 
his  position  became  worse  when  Pretorius,  still  powerful 
beyond  the  Vaal,  threatened  to  move  in  and  side  with  the 
Basutos.  Cape  Colony  was  at  that  moment  involved  in  a 
serious  war  with  the  Kafirs  of  the  south  coast,  and  could 
spare  no  troops  for  these  northern  troubles.  So  when 
Pretorius  intimated  that  he  and  the  northern  Boers  wished 
to  make  some  permanent  pacific  arrangement  with  Britain, 
which,  though  it  did  not  claim  their  territory,  still  claimed 
theu'  allegiance,  commissioners  were  sent  to  negotiate  with 
him  and  the  northern  or  Transvaal  group  of  emigrants, 
and  in  1852  a  convention  was  concluded  at  Sand  River 
with  "  the  commandant  and  delegates  of  the  Boers  living 
beyond  the  Vaal,"  by  which  the  British  government 
"  guaranteed  to  the  emigrant  farmers  beyond  the  Vaal 
River  the  right  to  manage  their  own  affairs,  and  to  govern 


THE  EUKOPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA  TILL  1854  133 

themselves  according  to  their  own  laws,  without  any  in- 
terference on  the  part  of  the  British  government,"  with 
provisions  "  disclaiming  all  alliances  with  any  of  the  col- 
ored nations  north  of  the  Vaal  River,"  permitting  the 
emigrants  to  purchase  ammunition  in  the  British  colonies, 
and  declaring  that  "  no  slavery  is  or  shaU  be  permitted  or 
practised  by  the  farmers  in  the  country  north  of  the  Vaal 
River." 

From  this  Sand  River  convention  the  South  African 
Republic,  afterward  slowly  formed  out  of  the  small  com- 
munities which  then  divided  the  country,  dates  its  inde- 
pendence, and  by  the  same  instrument  it  practically 
severed  itseK  from  the  Boer  emigrants  who  were  left  in 
the  Orange  River  Sovereignty  south  of  the  Vaal,  conduct 
which  the  republican  party  among  these  emigrants 
deemed  a  betrayal.  That  Sovereignty  remained  British, 
and  probably  would  have  so  continued  but  for  an  unex- 
pected incident.  It  was  stUl  vexed  by  the  war  with  the 
Basutos,  and  when  General  Cathcart,  who  had  now  come 
out  as  governor  of  the  Cape,  attacked  the  Basutos  with 
a  considerable  force  of  British  regidars,  he  was  drawn 
into  a  sort  of  ambush  in  their  difficult  country,  and  suffered 
a  serious  reverse,  and  would  have  been  compelled  to  in- 
vade Basutoland  afresh  with  a  larger  army  had  not  Mo- 
shesh,  the  Basuto  chief,  prudently  asked  for  peace.  Peace 
was  concluded. 

But  the  British  government  was  weary  of  these  petty 
and  apparently  unending  native  wars,  and  soon  after  the 
news  of  the  battle  with  Moshesh  reached  London,  the  Duke 
of  Newcastle,  and  Lord  Aberdeen's  government,  in  which 
he  was  colonial  secretary,  resolved  to  abandon  the  Sover- 
eignty altogether.  To  those  who  look  back  on  1853  with 
the  eyes  of  1897  this  seems  a  strange  determination,  for 
the  British  crown  had  ruled  the  country  for  eight  years 

9* 


134 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


and  recently  given  it  a  regular  new  constitution.  More- 
over, whereas  the  farmers  beyond  the  Vaal  were  nearly  all 
of  pure  Boer  stock,  those  in  the  Orange  River  Sovereignty 
were  mixed  with  English  settlers,  and  from  their  proximity 
to  the  Colony  were  much  less  averse  to  the  British  connec- 
tion. In  fact,  a  large  part  of  them— though  it  is  not  now 
easy  to  discover  the  exact  proportion — warmly  resisted  the 
proposal  of  the  British  government  to  retire,  and  inde- 
pendence had  to  be  forced  on  them  against  their  will. 
In  Cape  Colony  too,  and  among  the  missionaries,  there 
was  a  strong  repugnance  to  the  policy  of  withdrawal. 
The  authorities  of  the  Colony  and  the  Colonial  Office  at  home 
were,  however,  inexorable.  They  saw  no  use  in  keeping 
territories  which  were  costly  because  they  had  to  be  de- 
fended against  native  raids,  and  from  which  little  benefit 
was  then  expected.  Hardly  any  notice  had  been  taken  in 
Britain  of  the  Sand  River  convention,  which  the  conser- 
vative ministry  of  that  day  had  approved,  and  when,  at  the 
instance  of  delegates  sent  home  by  those  who,  in  the 
Orange  River  territory,  desii*ed  to  remain  subject  to  the 
British  crown,  a  motion  was  made  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons asking  the  Queen  to  reconsider  the  renunciation  of 
her  sovereignty  over  that  territory,  the  motion  found  no 
support  and  had  to  be  withdrawn.  Parliament,  indeed, 
went  so  far  as  to  vote  forty-eight  thousand  pounds  by 
way  of  compensation,  in  order  to  get  rid  of  this  large 
territory  and  a  great  number  of  attached  subjects.  So 
little  did  Englishmen  then  care  for  that  South  African 
dominion  which  they  have  subsequently  become  so  eager 
to  develop  and  extend. 

By  the  convention  signed  at  Bloemfontein  on  Februaiy 
23,  1854,  the  British  government  ''guaranteed  the  future 
independence  of  the  country  and  its  government,"  and 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA  TILL  1854  135 


that  they  should  be  "  declared,  to  all  intents  and  purposes, 
a  free  and  independent  people."  No  slavery  or  trade  in 
slaves  was  to  be  permitted  north  of  the  Orange  River. 
The  Orange  River  government  was  to  be  free  to  purchase 
ammunition  in  the  British  colonies,  and  liberal  privileges 
in  connection  with  import  duties  were  to  be  granted  to  it. 

These  two  conventions  of  1852  and  1854  are  epochs  of 
supreme  importance  in  South  African  history,  for  they 
mark  the  first  establishment  of  non-British  independent 
states,  whose  relations  with  the  British  colonies  were  there- 
after to  constitute  the  central  thread  in  the  annals  of  the 
country.  As  that  of  1852  recognized  the  Transvaal  state, 
so  from  that  of  1854,  which  is  a  more  explicit  and  com- 
plete declaration  of  independence  than  had  been  accorded 
to  the  Transvaal  people  two  years  before,  dates  the  begin- 
ning of  the  second  Boer  republic,  the  Orange  Free  State, 
which,  increased  by  the  conquest  from  the  Basutos  of  a 
strip  of  fertile  territory  in  the  south,  has  ever  since  re- 
mained perfectly  independent  and  at  peace  with  the  British 
colonies.  Its  only  serious  troubles  have  arisen  from  native 
wars,  and  these  have  long  ago  come  to  an  end.  In  1854 
an  assembly  of  delegates  enacted  for  it  the  republican 
constitution  under  which  it  has  ever  since  been  quietly 
and  peaceably  governed.  It  had  the  good  fortune  to 
elect  as  its  president,  in  1865,  a  lawyer  from  Cape  Colony, 
of  Dutch  extraction,  Mr.  (afterward  Sii")  John  Brand, 
who  guided  its  course  with  great  tact  and  wisdom  for 
twenty-four  years,  and  whose  favorite  expression,  "All 
will  come  right,"  now  inscribed  on  his  tombstone  at  Bloem- 
fontein,  has  become  throughout  Soxith  Africa  a  proverbial 
phrase  of  encouragement  in  moments  of  difficulty.^ 

^  Some  further  account  of  the  Orange  Free  State  will  be  found  in 
a  later  chapter. 


136  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


Beyond  the  Vaal  River  things  have  gone  very  differ- 
ently. The  farmers  of  that  region  were  more  scattered, 
more  rude  and  uneducated,  and  more  prone  to  factious  dis- 
sensions than  those  of  the  Free  State  proved  to  be  after 
1854 ;  and  while  the  latter  were  compressed  witliin  definite 
boundaries  on  three  sides,  the  Transvaal  Boers  were  scat- 
tered over  a  practically  Hmitless  area.  During  the  next 
twenty-five  years  the  Transvaal  people  had  very  Uttle  to 
do  with  the  British  government.  But  they  were  distracted 
by  internal  feuds,  and  involved  in  almost  incessant  strife 
with  the  natives.  These  two  sources  of  trouble  brought 
their  government,  in  1877,  to  a  condition  of  virtual  col- 
lapse. But  that  coUapse  and  the  annexation  which  fol- 
lowed it  belong  to  a  later  phase  of  South  Africa,  and  we 
must  now  turn  fi'om  them  to  trace  the  progress  of  events 
in  other  parts  of  the  country  between  1852  and  1877. 


CHAPTER  XII 


THE  EUROPEANS  EST  SOUTH  AFRICA,  1854-95 

BETWEEN  the  years  1852  and  1856  the  history  of 
Anglo-Dutch  South  Africa  breaks  up  into  four  dis- 
tinct streams.  The  Transvaal  or  South  African  Republic 
pursues  its  own  course  from  1852  onward,  the  Orange  Free 
State  from  1854,  and  Natal  from  1856,  in  which  year  it  was 
separated  from  the  Cape  and  constituted  as  a  distinct  col- 
ony. Between  1876  and  1880  the  South  African  Repubhc 
and  Natal  are  again  brought  into  close  relations  with  the 
march  of  events  in  Cape  Colony.  But  before  we  trace 
these  three  streams  in  their  several  courses  it  is  well  to 
return  to  the  Cape,  by  far  the  largest  and  most  populous 
of  the  four  communities,  and  sketch  in  outline  the  chief 
events  that  mark  the  development  of  that  colony  down 
to  the  memorable  epoch  of  1877-81. 

These  events  group  themselves  into  three  divisions— the 
material  progress  of  Cape  Colony,  the  changes  in  the  form 
of  its  government,  and  those  wars  with  the  Kafir  tribes 
which,  while  they  retarded  its  growth  in  population, 
steadily  increased  its  area. 

The  departure  of  some  eight  or  ten  thousand  Boers,  the 
most  discontented  part  of  the  population,  in  the  years  fol- 
lowing 1835,  not  only  removed  an  element  which,  excel- 

137 


138 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


lent  in  other  respects,  was  politically  at  once  unrestful  and 
old-fashioned,  but  left  plenty  of  vacant  space  to  be  occu- 
pied by  new  immigrants  from  Europe.  New  immigrants, 
however,  came  slowly,  because  at  that  time  the  tide  of 
British  emigration  set  mainly  to  America,  while  German 
emigration  had  hardly  begun.  The  Kafir  wars  had,  more- 
over, given  South  Africa  a  bad  name,  and  the  settlers  of 
1820  (see  above,  p.  121)  had  suffered  several  years  of  hard- 
ship before  prosperity  came  to  them.  However,  between 
1845  and  1850  four  or  five  thousand  British  immigrants 
were  brought  in,  with  the  aid  of  the  government,  and  a 
little  later  a  number  of  Germans  who  had  served  Eng- 
land in  the  German  Legion  during  the  Crimean  War. 
Again,  in  1858,  more  than  two  thousand  German  peasants 
were  settled  on  the  south  coast  in  lands  which  had  been 
previously  held  b}^  Kafirs.  These  people  made  good  col- 
onists, and  have  now  become  merged  in  the  British  pop- 
ulation, which  had  come  to  predominate  in  the  eastern 
province  as  the  Dutch  still  does  in  the  western.  As  the 
country  filled  there  was  a  steady,  though  slow,  progress 
in  farming  and  in  export  trade.  The  merino  sheep  had 
been  introduced  in  1812  and  1820,  and  its  wool  had  now 
become  a  source  of  wealth ;  so,  too,  had  ostrich  farming. 
The  finances,  which  had  been  in  disorder,  were  set  right, 
roads  began  to  be  made,  chiu'ches  and  schools  were  estab- 
lished, and  though  the  Kafir  raids  caused  much  loss  of 
life  and  of  cattle  on  the  eastern  border,  the  cost  of  these 
native  wars,  which  began  about  1865  and  developed 
rapidly  after  the  introduction  of  artificial  incubation  in 
1869,  being  chiefly  borne  by  the  home  government,  did  not 
burden  the  colonial  revenue.  In  1859  the  first  railway 
was  constructed,  and  by  1883  more  than  one  thousand 
miles  of  railway  were  open  for  traffic.    There  were,  how- 


THE  EUEOPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA,  1854-95  139 


ever,  no  industries  except  stock-keeping  and  tillage  untU 
1869,  when  the  discovery  of  diamonds  (of  which  more 
anon)  brought  a  sudden  rush  of  immigrants  from  Europe, 
stimulated  trade  so  powerfully  that  the  revenue  of  the 
Colony  doubled  within  five  years,  and  began  that  surpris- 
ing development  of  mineral  resources  which  has  been  the 
most  striking  feature  of  recent  years. 

With  the  growth  of  population,  which  had  risen  under 
British  rule  from  about  26,000  Europeans  in  1805  to 
182,000  in  1865  and  237,000  in  1875,  there  came  also 
changes  in  the  form  of  government.  At  first  the  gover- 
nor was  an  autocrat,  except  so  far  as  he  was  controlled  by 
the  fear  that  the  colonists  might  appeal  to  the  Colonial 
Office  in  London  against  him  :  and  the  administration  was 
therefore  wise  or  foolish,  liberal  or  severe,  according  to 
the  qualities  of  the  individual  governor.  Some  serious 
mistakes  were  committed,  and  one  governor.  Lord  Charles 
Somerset,  has  left  the  reputation  of  arbitrary  rule ;  but 
the  officials  sent  out  seem,  on  the  whole,  to  have  pursued 
a  more  judicious  policy  and  shown  more  respect  to  local 
opinion  than  the  representatives  of  the  Dutch  East  India 
Company  had  (with  one  or  two  bi'Uliant  exceptions)  done 
in  the  previous  centuiy.  The  blunders  which  preceded 
the  Great  Trek  of  1836  were  attributable  rather  to  the 
home  government  than  to  its  agents  on  the  spot,  and  in 
the  years  that  followed  colonial  feeling  complained  more 
often  of  Downing  street  than  it  did  of  Government  House 
at  Cape  Town.  The  ii-ritation  which  from  time  to  time 
broke  out  sprang  chiefly  from  questions  connected  with 
the  natives.  Like  all  Europeans  dweUing  among  inferior 
races,  the  mass  of  the  colonists,  English  as  well  as  Dutch, 
looked  upon  the  natives  as  existing  for  their  benefit,  and 
resented  the  efforts  which  the  home  government  made  to 


140  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


secure  for  the  blacks  equal  civil  rights  and  adequate  pro- 
tection. Their  "wrath  was  especially  kindled  by  the  vehe- 
mence with  which  a  few  among  the  missionaries  de- 
nounced any  wrongs  deemed  to  have  been  suffered  by  the 
natives  within  the  Colony,  and  argued  the  case  of  the  Kafir 
tribes  who  were  from  time  to  time  in  revolt.  I  do  not 
attempt  to  apportion  the  blame  in  these  disputes ;  but  any 
one  who  has  watched  the  relations  of  superior  and  inferior 
races  in  America  or  India  or  the  Pacific  islands  will  think 
it  probable  that  many  harsh  and  unjust  things  were  done  by 
the  colonials,  as  every  one  who  knows  how  zeal  tends  to  mis- 
lead judgment  of  well-intentioned  men  will  think  it  no  less 
probable  that  there  was  some  exaggeration  on  the  part 
of  the  philanthropic  friends  of  the  blacks  and  that  some 
groundless  charges  were  brought  against  the  colonists. 
The  missionaries,  especially  those  of  the  London  Society, 
had  a  certain  influence  with  the  Colonial  Office,  and  were 
supposed  to  have  much  more  than  they  had.  Thus 
from  1820  to  about  1860  there  was  a  perpetual  struggle 
between  the  colonists  and  the  missionaries,  in  which 
struggle  the  Governor  tended  to  side  with  the  colonists, 
whose  public  opinion  he  felt  round  him,  while  the  Colonial 
Office  leaned  to  the  philanthropists,  who  could  bring  po- 
litical pressure  to  bear  through  the  House  of  Commons. 
Unfortunate  as  these  bickeiings  were,  they  had  at  least 
the  residt  of  tending  to  unite  the  Dutch  and  Enghsh  ele- 
ments in  the  population,  for  on  native  questions  there  was 
little  difference  of  attitude  between  those  elements. 

In  1834  a  Legislative  Coimcil  was  created,  consisting, 
however,  of  officials  and  of  members  nominated  by  the 
governor,  and  not,  as  the  colonists  had  petitioned,  chosen 
by  election.  Twenty  years  later,  when  the  population 
had  greatly  increased  and  the  demand  for  representative 


THE  EUEOPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA,  1854-95  141 

institutions  could  no  longer  be  resisted,  a  regular  two- 
chambered  legislature  was  set  up,  consisting  of  a  Legisla- 
tive Council  and  a  House  of  Assembly,  both  elected  on  a 
wide  francliise,  with  no  distinction  of  race  or  color,  though 
of  course  the  colored  voters  were  comparatively  few,  be- 
cause the  tribal  Kafirs  living  under  their  chiefs  were 
excluded,  while  of  other  blacks  there  was  only  a  small 
proportion  who  held  property  even  to  the  limited  extent 
requii'ed  for  the  suffrage.  This  legislature  met  for  the 
first  time  in  1854.  Four  years  previously  an  event  had 
occurred  which  showed  how  desirable  it  was  that  consti- 
tutional means  should  be  provided  for  the  expression  of 
the  people's  wishes.  The  home  government  had  sent  out 
a  vessel  carrying  a  number  of  convicts  to  be  landed  and 
kept  in  the  Colony,  where  no  convicts  had  been  seen  since 
the  days  of  the  Dutch  Company.  A  strong  and  unanimous 
feeling  arose  at  once  against  this  scheme,  which  was  re- 
garded as  likely  to  prove  even  more  harmful  in  South 
Africa  than  it  had  proved  in  Australia,  because  there  was 
at  the  Cape  a  large  native  population,  among  whom  the 
escaped  or  released  convict,  possessing  the  knowledge  and 
capacity  of  a  white  man,  but  unrestrained  by  any  responsi- 
bility or  sense  of  a  character  to  lose,  would  be  able  to  work 
untold  mischief.  The  inhabitants  of  Cape  Town  and  its 
neighborhood  held  meetings  of  protest,  sent  remonstrances 
to  England,  and  mutually  pledged  themselves  to  supply 
no  food  to  the  convict  ship.  This  pledge  they  carried  out, 
and  during  the  five  months  that  the  convict  ship  lay  in 
Simon's  Bay,  it  was  from  the  naval  squadron  there  that 
she  had  to  receive  provisions.  The  Colonial  Office  at  last 
jdelded,  and  the  people,  while  rejoiced  at  the  success  they 
had  achieved,  and  at  the  heartiness  with  which  Dutch  and 
English  had  cooperated  for  a  common  object,  were  more 


142  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


than  ever  disposed  to  desire  some  control  over  their  own 
affairs. 

Although  after  1854  the  sole  power  of  legislation  was 
vested  in  the  colonial  ParHament,  subject  to  the  right  of 
the  British  crown  to  disaUow  an  act,— a  right  which  is  of 
course  very  rarely  used,— the  executive  power  still  re- 
mained with  the  governor  and  his  council,  who  were  ap- 
pointed by  the  home  government,  and  not  responsible  to 
the  Cape  legislature.  It  has,  however,  become  a  settled 
principle  of  British  colonial  policy  to  grant  to  each  and 
every  colony  not  only  legislative  power,  but  responsible 
executive  government  so  soon  as  the  white  population  of 
the  colony  has  become  relatively  large  enough  and  settled 
enough  to  enable  that  kind  of  constitution  to  be  properly 
worked.  In  1872  the  whites  of  Cape  Colony  had  come  to 
exceed  200,000,  and  the  need  for  a  change  had  been  empha- 
sized shortly  before  by  a  conflict  of  opinion  between  the 
Governor  and  the  legislature  as  to  the  best  means  of  setting 
right  the  finances  of  the  Colony.  Parliament  ha\dng  been 
dissolved,  the  new  houses  declared  for  responsible  govern- 
ment, and  the  home  government  wisely  assented  to  their 
wish.  Accordingly,  the  "cabinet  system"  of  Britain  was 
established,  the  Governor's  executive  council  being  turned 
into  a  ministry  responsible  to  the  legislature,  and  the  Gov- 
ernor himself  becoming  a  sort  of  local  constitutional  sov- 
ereign on  the  model  of  the  British  crown,  that  is  to  say,  a 
sovereign  who  reigns  but  does  not  govern,  the  executive 
acts  done  in  his  name  being  done  by  the  advice  and  on 
the  responsibility  of  the  ministry,  who  hold  oflSce  at  the 
pleasure  of  the  legislatui-e.  Thus  from  1872  onward  the 
Colony  has  enjoyed  complete  self-government,  and  has 
prospered  under  it  despite  the  antagonism  which  has  fre- 
quently shown  itself  between  the  eastern  and  western 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA,  1854-95  143 


provinces,  an  antagonism  due  partly  to  economic  causes, 
partly  to  the  predominance  of  the  English  element  in  the 
former  and  of  the  Dutch  in  the  latter  region.  The  work- 
ing of  the  cabinet  system  has  been  even  smoother  than 
in  most  of  the  other  British  colonies;  but  while  setting 
this  to  the  credit  of  the  good  sense  and  moderation  of  the 
people,  it  must  also  be  noted  that  the  most  exciting  crises 
which  have  arisen  in  South  Africa  have  lain  outside 
the  scope  of  the  colonial  ministry  and  legislature,  being 
matters  which  have  touched  the  two  Dutch  republics  and 
the  other  British  territories.  These  matters,  being  in- 
ternational, belong  to  the  British  crown,  and  to  its  local 
representative,  the  Governor,  in  his  capacity  of  High  Com- 
missioner for  South  Africa ;  and  in  that  capacity  he  is  not 
required  to  consult  the  Cape  ministry  and  legislature,  but 
acts  under  the  directions  of  the  Colonial  Office  in  London. 

The  grant  of  cabinet  government  tended  to  stimulate 
political  life  among  the  Dutch  farmers,  hitherto  the  more 
backward  part  of  the  population,  and  in  1882  their  wishes 
secured  a  reversal  of  the  ordinance  made  sixty  years  be- 
fore for  the  exclusive  use  of  English  in  official  documents 
and  legal  proceedings.  Dutch  was  now  placed  on  a  level 
with  English  as  an  official  language  in  Parliament  and  the 
law  courts.  But  this  assertion  of  Dutch  sentiment  was 
due  to  causes  which  will  be  better  understood  when  we 
come  to  the  events  of  1880  and  1881. 

Most  of  the  peaceful  growth  which  has  been  described 
would  have  been  more  rapid  but  for  the  frequent  vexation 
of  native  wars.  Twice  under  the  rule  of  the  Dutch  Com- 
pany and  seven  times  under  the  British  crown  have  there 
been  sanguinary  conflicts  with  the  fierce  Kafir  tribes  of  the 
Kosa  family,  who  dwell  to  the  east  of  the  Colony.  On  the 
north  there  had  been  only  Hottentots,  a  weak  nomad  race, 


I 
I 


144 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


who  soon  vanished  under  the  attacks  of  smallpox  and  the 
pressm*e  of  the  whites.  On  the  northeast  the  deserts  of 
the  KaiTOO  lay  between  the  colonists  and  the  Kafirs  who 
inhabited  the  plains  of  the  Upper  Orange  and  Yaal  rivers. 
But  on  the  east  the  country  was  comparatively  well 
watered,  and  supported  a  large  Kafir  population  full  of 
courage  and  fighting  spirit.  Collisions  between  them  and 
the  whites  were  inevitable.  The  country  they  occupied 
was  mostly  rugged,  and  covered  with  a  dense  low  wood,  or 
rather  scrub,  traversed  by  narrow  and  winding  tracks, 
which  were  of  course  familiar  to  them,  and  difficult  for 
white  troops.  They  had  always  the  advantage  in  point 
of  numbers,  and  though  they  were  usually  beaten  and 
compelled  to  sue  for  peace,  the  obvious  anxiety  of  the 
colonial  government  to  conclude  a  peace  emboldened  them 
to  fresh  outbreaks.  To  civilized  men,  who  know  the  enor- 
mous superiority  of  discipline  and  of  firearms,  it  seems 
strange  that  these  natives,  who  in  the  earlier  wars  had  no 
firearms,  should  have  so  often  renewed  what  we  can  see 
was  a  hopeless  struggle.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that 
the  natives,  who  saw  only  small  white  forces  brought 
against  them,  and  knew  that  the  whole  number  of  whites 
in  the  Colony  was  small,  have  never  realized,  and  do  not 
realize  even  to-day,  the  enoi-mous  reser\-e  of  white  popu- 
lation in  Eui'ope.  Their  minds  cannot  take  in  large  num- 
bers, cannot  look  far  forward,  cannot  grasp  large  issues, 
and  are  swayed  by  sudden  gusts  of  feeling  which  over- 
come all  calculation  of  results.  Accordingly,  the  Kafirs 
returned  over  and  over  again  to  the  contest,  while  the  co- 
lonial government,  not  wishing  to  extend  its  frontiers,  and 
hating  the  expense  of  this  unprofitable  strife,  never  grap- 
pled with  the  problem  in  a  large  way,  but  tiied  on  each 
occasion  to  do  just  enough  to  restore  order  for  the  time 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA,  1854-95  145 

being.  It  would  probably  have  been  better  to  have  spent 
once  for  all  a  large  sum  in  a  thorough  conquest  of  the 
Kosas,  planting  strong  forts  here  and  there  through  their 
country,  and  organizing  a  regular  gendarmerie.  But 
untd  the  annexation  of  Natal  in  1843  placed  British  power 
on  the  other  side  of  these  turbulent  tribes,  the  process  of 
conquest  might  well  seem  interminable,  for  it  was  plain 
that  as  soon  as  one  clan  had  been  brought  to  submission 
troubles  would  break  out  with  the  next  that  lay  beyond  it, 
and  fresh  wars  have  to  be  undertaken  to  reduce  each  of 
these  in  its  turn.  Some  allowance  miist  therefore  be  made 
for  the  tendency  of  the  government  to  take  short  views 
and  do  no  more  than  was  needed  for  the  moment,  espe- 
cially as  nearly  every  new  war  brought  upon  the  Governor 
for  the  time  being  the  displeasure  of  the  Colonial  Office, 
and  brought  upon  the  Colonial  Office  the  censure  of  econ- 
omists and  philanthropists  at  home. 

The  theater  of  these  wars  was  the  country  along  the 
south  coast  between  Algoa  Bay  and  the  Kei  River,  and  an 
important  step  forward  was  made  when,  after  the  wars  of 
1846-47  and  1851-53,  the  province  of  British  Kaffraria, 
extending  to  the  Kei  River,  was  created,  placed  under 
imperial  officials,  and  garrisoned  by  British  regiments. 
Four  years  afterward,  in  1857,  the  Kafirs  of  this  province, 
at  the  bidding  of  their  chiefs,  prompted  by  a  wizard  who 
professed  to  have  received  messages  from  the  world  of 
spirits,  destroyed  their  cattle  and  their  stores  of  grain,  in 
the  belief  that  the  dead  ancestors  of  the  tribe  would  reap- 
pear and  join  them  in  driving  out  the  white  men,  while 
herds  of  cattle  would  issue  from  the  ground  and  crops 
would  suddenly  spring  up  and  cover  the  soil.  Many  of  the 
clans  were  already  on  the  verge  of  famine  when  the  prom- 
ised day  arrived,  and  when  it  had  passed  starvation  began, 

10 


146 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  ATEICA 


and  within  a  few  months,  despite  the  efforts  of  the  colo- 
nial authorities  to  supply  food,  some  30,000  Kafirs  per- 
ished of  hunger  or  disease.  This  frightful  catastrophe, 
which  earned  many  thousands  westward  iuto  the  Colony 
in  search  of  work,  and  left  large  tracts  vacant,  led  to  the 
establishment  in  those  tracts  of  white  settlers,  and  ulti- 
mately, in  1865,  to  the  union  of  British  Kaffraria  with  the 
Colony.  It  also  so  much  weakened  the  Kosas  that  for  the 
unprecedentedly  long  period  of  twenty  years  there  was  no 
Kafir  war.  In  1877  and  1880  some  risings  occurred,  which 
were  suppressed  with  no  great  difficulty ;  and  in  1894  the 
boundaries  of  the  Colony,  which  had  been  advancing  by  a 
series  of  small  annexations,  were  finally  rounded  off  on 
the  eastern  side  by  the  addition  of  the  territory  of  the 
Pondos,  which  made  it  conterminous  in  that  direction 
with  the  colony  of  Natal. 

To  complete  the  chronicle  of  native  wars,  we  ought  now 
to  tm'n  to  Natal,  on  whose  borders  there  arose  in  1879  a 
conflict  with  the  greatest  native  power— that  of  the  Zulus — 
which  the  British  had  yet  encountered. 

Before  that  year,  however,  a  momentous  change  in  Brit- 
ish colonial  policy  had  occurred,  and  I  must  go  some  j'ears 
back  to  describe  the  events  which  gave  rise  to  it. 

The  reader  will  recollect  that  in  1852  and  1854  Britain 
had  abjured  all  pui-pose  of  extending  the  boundaries  of 
her  domiaion  toward  the  interior  by  recognizing  the  in- 
dependence of  the  two  Dutch  republics,  which  date  their 
legal  rise  from  the  two  conventions  concluded  iu  those 
years.  She  had  done  so  quite  honestly,  desuing  to  avoid 
the  expense  and  responsibility  which  fui'ther  advances 
must  entail,  and  with  the  wish  of  leaving  the  two  new 
republics  to  work  out  their  own  salvation  in  their  own 
way.  For  some  years  nothing  occurred  to  create  fresh 
difficulties.    But  in  1858  a  war  broke  out  between  the 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA,  1854-95  147 

Orange  Free  State  and  the  Basuto  chief  Moshesli,  who 
claimed  land  which  the  Free  State  farmers  had  occupied. 
The  Free  State  commandos  attacked  him,  and  had  pene- 
trated Basutoland  as  far  as  the  stronghold  of  Thaba 
Bosiyo,  when  they  were  obliged  to  return  to  protect  their 
own  farms  from  the  roving  bands  of  horsemen  which  Mo- 
shesh  had  skilfully  detached  to  operate  in  their  rear. 
Being  hard  pressed,  they  appealed  to  the  Governor  of 
Cape  Colony  to  mediate  between  them  and  Moshesh.  Mo- 
shesh  agreed,  and  a  new  frontier  was  settled  by  the  Grover- 
nor.  However,  in  1865  fresh  troubles  broke  out,  and  there 
was  again  war  between  Moshesh  and  the  Free  State.  The 
Governor  of  Cape  Colony  was  again  invoked,  but  his  de- 
cision was  not  respected  by  the  Basutos,  whom  Moshesh 
could  not  always  control,— for  they  are  much  less  submis- 
sive to  their  chiefs  than  are  the  Zulus,— and  hostilities 
having  recommenced  after  a  brief  interval  of  peace,  the 
Free  State  made  a  supreme  effort,  and  in  1868  was  on 
the  point  of  destroying  the  Basuto  power,  though  it  had 
never  been  able  to  capture  Thaba  Bosiyo,  when  Moshesh 
appealed  to  the  High  Commissioner  to  extend  British  pro- 
tection to  his  people.  Unwilling  to  see  Basutoland  an- 
nexed by  the  Free  State,  and  fearing  injury  to  the  Colony 
from  the  dispersion  of  Basuto  fugitives  through  it,  the 
High  Commissioner  consented,  and  declared  the  Basutos 
British  subjects.  The  Free  State  was  suffered  to  retain 
a  large  tract  of  fertile  land  along  the  north  bank  of  the 
Caledon  River,  which  it  had  conquered ;  but  it  was  mor- 
tified by  seeing  British  authority  established  to  the  south 
of  it,  aU  the  way  from  Natal  to  the  borders  of  Cape  Col- 
ony, and  the  final  extinction  of  the  hopes  which  it  had 
cherished  of  extending  its  territories  to  the  sea  and  acquir- 
ing a  harbor  at  the  St.  John's  River. 

These  events,  which  befeU  in  1869,  mark  the  recom- 


148  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


meneement  of  British  advance  toward  the  interior.  Still 
more  momentous  was  another  occurrence  which  belongs  to 
the  same  year.  In  1869  and  1870  a  sudden  rush  was  made 
from  all  parts  of  South  Africa  to  a  small  district  between 
the  Modder  and  the  Vaal  rivers  (where  the  town  of  Kimber- 
ley  now  stands),  in  which  diamonds  had  been  discovered. 
Within  a  few  months  thousands  of  diggers  from  Europe 
and  America,  as  well  as  from  the  surrounding  countries, 
were  at  work  here,  and  the  region,  hitherto  neglected,  be- 
came a  prize  of  inestimable  value.  A  question  at  once 
arose  as  to  its  ownership.  The  Orange  Free  State  claimed 
it,  but  it  was  also  claimed  by  a  Griqua  (half-breed)  captain, 
named  Nicholas  Waterboer,  son  of  old  Andries  Waterboer, 
and  by  a  native  Batlapin  chief,  as  well  as  by  the  Transvaal 
Republic.  The  claims  of  the  last-named  state  were  dis- 
posed of  by  the  decision  of  the  Governor  of  Natal,  who  had 
been  recognized  as  arbitrator  by  the  Griquas,  the  Batlapin, 
and  the  President  of  the  Republic.  He  awarded  the  tract 
in  dispute  to  Waterboer,  thereby  cutting  out  the  Free 
State,  which  had  not  been  a  party  to  the  arbitration ;  and 
Waterboer  placed  himself  under  the  British  government, 
which  presently  erected  the  country  into  a  Crown  Colony 
under  the  name  of  Griqualand  West.  This  was  in  1871. 
The  Free  State  protested,  and  was  after  a  time  able  to 
appeal  to  a  judgment  delivered  by  a  British  court,  which 
found  that  Waterboer  had  never  enjoyed  any  right  to  the 
territory.  However,  the  colony  had  by  this  time  been  set 
up  and  the  British  flag  displayed.  The  British  govern- 
ment, without  either  admitting  or  denj^ng  the  Free  State 
title,  declared  that  a  district  in  which  it  was  difi&cult  to 
keep  order  amid  a  turbulent  and  shifting  population  ought 
to  be  under  the  control  of  a  strong  power,  and  offered 
the  Free  State  a  sum  of  ninety  thousand  pounds  in  settle- 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA,  1854-95  149 

ment  of  whatever  claim  it  might  possess.  The  acceptance 
by  the  Free  State  in  1876  of  this  sum  closed  the  contro- 
versy, though  a  sense  of  injustice  continued  to  rankle  in 
the  breasts  of  some  of  the  citizens  of  the  Republic.  Ami- 
cable relations  have  subsisted  ever  since  between  it  and 
Cape  Colony,  and  the  control  of  the  British  government 
over  the  Basutos  has  secured  for  it  peace  in  the  quarter 
which  was  formerly  most  disturbed. 

These  two  cases  show  how  various  are  the  causes  and 
how  mixed  the  motives  which  press  a  great  power  forward 
even  against  the  wishes  of  its  statesmen.  The  Basutos 
were  declared  British  subjects  partly  out  of  a  sympathetic 
wish  to  rescue  and  protect  them,  partly  because  policy  re- 
quired the  acquisition  of  a  country  naturally  strong  and 
holding  an  important  strategical  position.  Griqualand 
West,  taken  in  the  belief  that  Waterboer  had  a  good  title 
to  it,  was  retained  partly,  perhaps,  because  a  population 
had  crowded  into  it  which  consisted  mainly  of  British 
subjects,  and  was  not  easily  controllable  by  a  small  state, 
but  mainly  because  colonial  feeling  refused  to  part  with  a 
region  of  such  exceptional  mineral  wealth.  And  the  re- 
tention of  Griqualand  West  led,  before  long,  to  the  acqui- 
sition of  Bechuanaland,  which  in  its  ttirn  passed  naturally 
into  that  northward  extension  of  British  influence  which 
has  carried  the  Union  Jack  to  the  shores  of  Lake 
Tanganyika.  The  wish  to  restrict  responsibility,  which 
had  been  so  strong  twenty  years  before,  had  now  died 
out  of  the  British  public  at  home,  and  had  grown  feebler 
even  in  the  minds  of  the  statesmen  whose  business 
it  was  to  find  the  money  needed  for  these  increasing 
charges  on  the  imperial  treasury ;  while  the  philanthropic 
interest  in  the  native  races,  stimulated  by  the  discoveries 
of  Livingstone,  now  took  the  form  not  of  proposing  to 

10* 


150  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


leave  them  to  themselves,  but  of  desiring  to  protect  them 
against  the  adventurers,  whether  of  Boer  or  of  EngUsh 
blood,  whom  it  was  found  impossible  to  prevent  from 
pressing  forward  into  the  wilderness. 

It  is  remarkable  that  the  change,  as  yet  only  an  incipi- 
ent change,  in  the  public  opinion  of  the  English  people, 
who  now  began  to  feel  the  desire  not  merely  to  retain  but 
to  expand  their  colonial  dominion,  should  have  become 
apparent  just  at  the  time  when  there  occurred  that  dis- 
covery of  diamonds  which  showed  that  this  hitherto  least 
progressive  of  the  larger  colonies  possessed  unsuspected 
stores  of  wealth.  The  discovery,  which  brought  a  new 
stream  of  enterprising  and  ambitious  men  into  the 
country,  and  fixed  the  attention  of  the  world  upon  it, 
has  proved  a  turning-point  in  South  African  history. 

That  change  in  the  views  of  the  British  government  on 
which  I  have  been  commenting  found  at  this  moment  a 
fresh  expression  in  another  quarter.  In  1869  the  Portu- 
guese government  concluded  a  commercial  treaty  with  the 
South  African  Republic,  under  which  it  seemed  probable 
that  a  considerable  trade  might  spring  up  between  the 
Portuguese  coast  of  the  Indian  Ocean  and  the  interior. 
This  called  attention  to  the  port  of  LourenQo  Marques, 
on  the  shore  of  Delagoa  Bay,  the  best  haven  upon 
that  coast.  Great  Britain  claimed  it  under  a  cession 
which  had  been  obtained  from  a  native  chief  of  the  coun- 
try by  a  British  naval  exploring  expedition  in  1822.  Por- 
tugal, however,  resisted  the  claim.  In  1872  it  was  referred 
to  the  arbitration  of  Marshal  MacMahon,  then  President 
of  the  French  republic,  and  in  1875  he  awarded  the  terri- 
tory in  dispute  to  Portugal.  Both  cases  were  weak,  and 
it  is  not  easy  to  say  which  was  the  weaker,  for,  although  the 
Portuguese  had  undoubtedly  been  first  on  the  ground. 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA,  1854-95      1  51 


their  occupation,  often  disturbed  by  the  native  tribes,  bad 
been  extremely  precarious.  The  decision  was  a  serious  blow 
to  British  hopes,  and  has  become  increasingly  serious  with 
the  further  development  of  the  country.  Yet  it  was  miti- 
gated by  a  provision  contained  in  the  agreement  for  arbi- 
tration, that  the  Power  against  whom  the  decision  might 
go  should  have  thereafter  from  the  successful  Power 
a  right  of  preemption  as  against  any  other  state  desiring 
to  purchase  the  territory.^  This  provision  is  momentous 
as  giving  Britain  the  right  to  prevent  not  only  the  South 
African  Republic,  but  any  European  power,  from  ac- 
quiring a  point  of  the  utmost  importance  both  commer- 
cial and  strategical.  Rumors  have  often  been  circulated 
that  Britain  herself  would  gladly  acquire  the  harbor  of 
Delagoa  Bay,  but  the  sensitive  patriotism  of  the  Portu- 
guese people  is  at  present  so  strongly  opposed  to  any 
sale  of  territory  that  no  Portuguese  ministry  is  likely  to 
propose  it.2 

At  the  very  time  when  the  attempt  to  acquire  Delagoa 
Bay  revealed  the  new  purposes  which  had  begun  to  ani- 
mate Great  Britain,  another  scheme  was  suggested  to  the 
Colonial  Office  by  the  success  which  had  lately  attended 
its  efforts  in  Canada.  In  1867  the  passing  of  the  British 
North  America  Act  drew  the  theretofore  isolated  provinces 
of  the  Dominion  into  a  confederation,  relieving  the  home 
government  of  some  grave  responsibilities,  and  giving  to 
the  whole  country  the  advantages  of  common  administra- 

1  It  has  been  stated  (see  Mr.  Molteno's  "Federal  South  Africa," 
p.  87)  that  Portugal  was  then  prepared  to  sell  her  rights  for  a  small 
sum— according  to  report,  for  £12,000  ($60,000). 

2  In  1891  the  southern  boundary  of  Portuguese  territory  was  fixed 
by  a  treaty  with  Great  Britain  at  a  point  on  the  coast  named  Kosi 
Bay,  about  seventy  miles  south  of  Louren§o  Marques. 


152  IMPKESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


tion  and  legislation  in  matters  of  common  concern.  Lord 
Carnarvon,  then  Colonial  Secretary,  threw  himself  into  the 
idea  of  similarly  uniting  the  different  colonies  and  states  of 
South  Africa.  It  had  been  advocated  by  Sii'  George  Grey, 
when  Governor  in  1858,  and  had  even  received  the  sup- 
port of  the  Orange  Free  State,  whose  Volksraad  passed 
a  resolution  favoring  it  in  that  year.  Many  considera- 
tions of  practical  convenience  suggested  this  scheme,  chief 
among  them  the  desirability  of  having  both  a  uniform 
policy  in  native  affairs  (the  absence  of  which  had  recently 
caused  trouble)  and  a  common  commercial  policy  and  tariff 
system.  Accordingly,  in  1875  he  addressed  a  despatch  to 
the  Governor  of  Cape  Colony,  recommending  such  a  scheme 
as  fit  to  be  adopted  by  that  colony,  which  three  years  be- 
fore had  received  responsible  government,  and  Mr.  J.  A. 
Froude  was  sent  out  to  press  it  upon  the  people.  The 
choice  did  not  prove  a  fortunate  one,  but  even  a  more 
skilful  emissary  would  probably  have  failed,  for  the  mo- 
ment was  inopportune.  The  Cape  people  were  not  ready 
for  so  large  and  far-reaching  a  proposal.  The  Orange 
Free  State  was  exasperated  at  the  loss  of  Griqualand  West. 
The  Transvaal  people,  though,  as  we  shall  see  presently, 
theii*  republic  was  in  sore  straits,  were  averse  to  anything 
that  could  affect  their  independence.  However,  Sir  Bartle 
Frere,  the  next  Governor  of  the  Cape,  who  went  out  in 
1877,  entered  heartily  into  Lord  Carnarvon's  plan,  which 
continued  to  be  pressed  till  1880,  when  it  was  rejected  by 
the  Cape  Parliament,  largely  at  the  instance  of  envoys 
from  the  Transvaal  Boers,  who  lu'ged  the  Cape  Boers  not 
to  accept  it  until  the  Transvaal  (which,  as  shall  be  pres- 
ently set  forth,  had  been  annexed  in  1877)  should  have 
regained  its  independence.  This  failure  of  the  proposals 
of  the  home  government  seriously  damaged  the  prospects 


THE  EUEOPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFKICA,  1854-95  153 

of  future  federation  schemes,  and  is  only  one  of  several 
instances  in  South  African  history  that  show  how  much 
harm  impatience  may  do,  even  when  the  object  is  itself  an 
admirable  one. 

The  next  step  in  the  forward  march  of  British  rule  took 
place  far  to  the  southwest,  on  the  borders  of  Natal.  The 
territory  had,  in  1856,  become  a  separate  colony,  distinct 
from  the  Cape,  and  with  a  legislative  council  thi"ee  fourths 
of  whose  members  were  elective.  It  had  still  a  relatively 
small  white  population,  for  many  of  the  Boer  immigrants 
had  quitted  it  between  1843  and  1848,  and  though  a  body 
of  English  settlers  arrived  soon  after  the  latter  year, 
there  were  in  1878  only  some  25,000  white  residents, 
while  the  natives  numbered  fuUy  300,000.  The  Zulu 
kingdom,  which  adjoined  it  on  the  east,  had  passed 
(in  1872)  from  the  sluggish  Panda  to  his  more  energetic 
son  Cetewayo  (pronounced  "  Ketshwayo "),  whose  ambi- 
tious spirit  had  revived  the  military  organization  and 
traditions  of  his  uncle  Tshaka.  Cetewayo  had  been 
installed  as  king  by  a  British  ofiBcial,  and  had  lived 
ever  since  at  peace  with  the  colony;  but  the  powerful 
army  which  he  possessed  roused  disquiet  among  the  Na- 
talians,  and  alarmed  the  then  Governor  of  the  Cape  and 
High  Commissioner  for  South  Africa,  Sir  Bartle  Frere. 
Differences  had  arisen  between  him  and  Cetewayo,  and 
when  the  latter  refused  to  submit  to  the  demands  which 
the  High  Commissioner  addressed  to  him,  including  a 
requirement  that  he  should  disband  his  regiments  and 
receive  a  British  resident,  war  was  declared  against  him. 
This  act  was  justified  at  the  time  on  the  ground  that 
the  Zulu  militaiy  power  constituted  a  standing  men- 
ace to  Natal  and  to  South  Africa  in  general,  and  that 
the  vast  majority  of  the  natives  living  in  Natal  itself 


154 


IMPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFEICA 


miglit  join  the  Zulu  king  were  he  to  invade  the  Colony, 
Whether  this  risk  was  sufficiently  imminent  to  warrant 
such  a  step  was  then,  and  has  been  since,  warmly  debated 
in  England.  Most  of  those  who  have  given  impartial 
study  to  the  subject,  and  have  studied  also  the  character 
and  earlier  career  of  the  High  Commissioner,  are  disposed 
to  think  that  war  might  have  been  and  ought  to  have 
been  avoided,  and  that  Sir  Bartle  Frere,  in  declaring  it, 
committed  a  grave  error;  but  it  is  right  to  add  that 
there  are  many  in  South  Africa  who  still  defend  his 
action.  The  invasion  of  Zululand  which  followed  began 
with  a  disaster— the  surprise  at  Isandhlwana  (January, 
1879)  of  a  British  force,  which  was  almost  annihilated 
by  a  vastly  superior  native  anny.  Ultimately,  how- 
ever, Cetewayo  was  defeated  and  made  prisoner.  Zulu- 
land  was  divided  among  thirteen  petty  chiefs  under  a 
British  resident,  and  subsequently,  in  1887,  annexed  to  the 
British  crown  as  a  dependency,  to  be  administered  by  the 
Governor  of  Natal.  Except  for  some  disturbances  in  1888, 
its  people  have  since  remained  peaceful,  prosperous,  and 
to  all  appearance  contented. 

We  may  now  return  to  follow  the  fortunes  of  the  emi- 
grant Boers  of  the  far  northeastern  interior,  whose  repub- 
lic, recognized  by  the  Imperial  Government  in  1852,  was 
now,  after  twenty-five  years,  to  be  brought  into  a  closer 
connection  than  ever  with  the  British  colonies  by  events 
which  are  still  fresh  in  men's  memories,  and  which  are 
exerting  a  potent  influence  on  the  politics  of  our  own  time. 
The  scale  of  these  events  was  small,  but  the  circumstances 
are  full  of  instruction,  and  manj^  years  may  yet  elapse  be- 
fore the  consequences  have  been  fully  worked  out. 

The  Dutch  farmers  who  had  settled  beyond  the  Vaal 
River  were  more  rude  and  uneducated  than  those  of  the 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA,  1854-95  155 

Free  State,  had  no  admixture  of  English  blood,  and  re- 
mained unaffected  by  intercourse  with  the  more  civilized 
people  of  Cape  Colony.  Their  love  of  independence  was 
accompanied  by  a  tendency  to  faction  and  dissension. 
Their  warlike  spirit  had  produced  a  readiness  to  take  up 
arms  on  shght  occasions,  and  had  degenerated  into  a  fond- 
ness for  predatory  expeditions.  They  were,  moreover,  al- 
ways desirous  of  enlarging  the  area  of  their  stock  farms 
by  the  annexation  of  fresh  territory  to  the  north  and 
west,  and  thus  were  constantly  brought  into  collision  with 
the  native  occupants  of  the  land.  Scattered  over  a  wide 
area  of  pasture-land,  they  were  practically  exempt  from  the 
control  of  law-courts  or  magistrates,  while  at  the  same 
time  the  smallness  of  their  numbers,  and  the  family  ties 
which  linked  them  into  jealous  and  mutually  distrustful 
groups,  gave  rise  to  personal  rivalries  among  the  leaders 
and  bitter  feuds  among  the  adherents  of  each  faction, 
resembling  those  which  used  to  distract  a  city  republic 
in  ancient  Greece  or  medieval  Italy.  The  absence  of  any 
effective  government  had  attracted  many  adventurers  from 
various  parts  of  South  Africa,  who  wandered  as  traders 
or  hunters  through  the  wilder  parts  of  the  country  and 
along  its  borders,  often  violent  and  reckless  men,  who  ill- 
treated  the  natives,  and  constituted  not  only  a  public 
scandal,  but,  by  the  provocations  which  they  gave  to  the 
Kafir  chiefs,  a  danger  to  the  peace  of  the  adjoining  British 
territories,  as  well  as  to  that  of  the  Transvaal  itself. 

From  their  first  settlement  beyond  the  Vaal  in  the  years 
immediately  following  the  Great  Trek  of  1836,  the  farmers, 
though  considering  themselves  to  form  one  people,  had 
been  grouped  in  several  small  communities.  In  1852  there 
were  four  such,  those  of  Potchefstroom,  Utrecht,  Lyden- 
burg,  and  Zoutpansberg,  each  having  its  Volksraad  (peo- 


156 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


pie's  council)  and  president  or  executive  head,  while  a  sort 
of  loosely  fedex-ative  tie  linked  them  together  for  the  pur- 
poses not  of  internal  administration,  but  of  defense  against 
common  foes. 

In  1857  the  Potehefstroom  people  tried  to  conquer 
the  Orange  Free  State,  then  in  the  third  year  of  its 
life,  but  desisted  on  flndiug  that  the  infant  Republic 
was  prepared  to  defend  itself.  Presently  a  single  Volks- 
raad  for  all  the  communities  beyond  the  Vaal  was  chosen, 
and  in  1858  an  instrument  called  the  "Grrondwet,"  or 
Fundamental  Law,  was  drawn  up  by  a  body  of  delegates 
elected  for  the  purpose.  It  was  presently  adopted  by  two  of 
the  semi-independent  communities,  those  of  Potehefstroom 
and  Zoutpansberg,  and  in  1860  also  by  those  of  Lyden- 
burg  and  Utrecht,  which  had  by  that  time  united.  It  has 
been  since  several  times  modified,  and  the  question 
whether  it  is  to  be  deemed  a  truly  Rigid  constitution, 
like  that  of  the  United  States  or  that  of  the  Swiss  Con- 
federation, has  given  rise  to  much  controversy.^  A  civil 
war  broke  out  in  1862,  and  the  country  can  hardly  be  said 
to  have  reached  one  united  government  till  1864,  when  the 
then  president,  Mr.  M.  W.  Pretorius  (son  of  the  old  an- 
tagonist of  the  English),  was  recognized  by  aU  the  com- 
munities and  factions  as  their  executive  head. 

Even  in  1864  the  white  population  of  the  South  African 
Republic  was  very  small,  probably  not  more  than  30,000 
all  told,  giving  an  average  of  less  than  one  person  to  three 
square  miles.  There  were,  however,  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  natives,  a  few  of  whom  were  living  as  servants, 
under  a  system  of  enforced  labor  which  was  some- 
times hardly  distinguishable  from  slavery,  whUe  the 
vast  majority  were  ruled  by  their  own  chiefs,  some 

1  See  especially  the  case  of  Brown  I's.  Leyds,  recently  (January, 
1897)  decided  by  the  High  Court  of  the  South  African  Republic. 


THE  EUEOPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA,  1854-95  157 


as  tributaries  of  the  Republic,  some  practically  inde- 
pendent of  it.  With  the  latter  wars  were  frequently  rag- 
ing—wars in  which  shocking  cruelties  were  perpetrated  on 
both  sides,  the  Kafirs  massacring  the  white  families  whom 
they  surprised,  the  Boer  commandos  taking  a  savage  ven- 
geance iipon  the  tribes  when  they  captured  a  kraal  or 
mountain  stronghold.  It  was  the  sight  of  these  wars 
which  drove  Dr.  Livingstone  to  begin  his  famous  explo- 
rations to  the  north.  The  farmers  were  too  few  to  re- 
duce the  natives  to  submission,  though  always  able  to 
defeat  them  in  the  field,  and  while  they  relished  an  ex- 
pedition, they  had  an  inxdncible  dislike  to  any  protracted 
operations  which  cost  money.  Taxes  they  would  not  pay. 
They  lived  in  a  sort  of  rude  plenty  among  their  sheep  and 
cattle,  but  they  had  hardly  any  coined  money,  conducting 
their  transactions  by  barter,  and  they  were  too  rude  to 
value  the  benefits  which  government  secures  to  a  civilised 
people.  Accoi-dingly  the  treasury  remained  almost  empty, 
the  paper  money  which  Avas  issued  fell  tiU  in  1870  it  was 
worth  only  one  fourth  of  its  face  value,  no  public  improve- 
ments were  made,  no  proper  administration  existed,  and 
every  man  did  that  which  was  right  in  his  own  eyes. 
In  1872  Mr.  M.  W.  Pretorius  was  obliged  to  resign  the 
presidency,  owing  to  the  unpopularity  he  had  incurred 
by  accepting  the  arbitration  mentioned  above  (p.  148), 
which  declared  the  piece  of  territory  where  diamonds 
had  been  found  not  to  belong  to  the  Eepublie,  and 
which  the  Volksraad  thereupon  repudiated.  His  suc- 
cessor was  Mr.  Burgers,  a  Cape  Dutchman,  who  had 
formerly  been  a  clergyman  of  the  Dutch  Reformed 
Church,  a  man  of  energy,  integrity,  and  eloquence, 
but  deficient  in  practical  judgment,  and  who  soon  be- 
came distrusted  on  account  of  his  theological  opinions. 
It  used  to  be  jestingly  said  that  the  Boers  disliked  him 


158  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


because  he  denied  that  the  devil  possessed  that  tail  which 
is  shown  in  the  pictures  that  adorn  the  old  Dutch  Bibles ; 
but  his  deviations  from  orthodoxy  went  much  further 
than  this,  and  were  deemed  by  the  people  to  be  the  cause 
of  the  misfortunes  they  experienced  under  his  guidance. 
He  formed  large  plans  for  the  development  of  the 
country  and  the  extension  of  Boer  power  over  South  Africa, 
plans  which  his  citizens  were  unable  to  appreciate  and  the 
resoui'ces  at  his  disposal  were  quite  unfit  to  accomplish. 
Disorganization,  aggravated  by  intestine  faction,  grew 
worse  and  worse.  The  state  was  practically  bankrupt ; 
trade  had  ceased,  money  could  not  be  raised.  In  1876,  in  a 
war  which  had  broken  out  with  Sikukuni,  a  Kafir  chief 
who  lived  in  the  mountains  of  the  northeast,  the  Boers 
were  repulsed,  and  ultimately  returned  in  confusion  to 
their  homes.  On  the  south,  Cetewayo,  then  in  the  zenith 
of  his  power,  was  unfriendly  and  seemed  likely  to  pour 
in  his  Zulu  hordes.  The  weakness  and  disorders  of  the 
Republic  had  become  a  danger  not  only  to  the  British 
subjects  who  had  begun  to  settle  in  it,  especially  at  the 
Lydenburg  gold-mines,  but  also  to  the  neighboring  British 
territories,  and  especially  to  Natal ;  so  a  British  commis- 
sioner was  sent  to  examine  into  the  condition  of  the  coun- 
try, with  secret  instructions  empowering  him  to  proclaim, 
if  he  should  deem  it  necessary,  and  if  he  was  satisfied 
that  the  majority  of  the  inhabitants  would  approve, 
its  annexation  to  the  British  crown.  After  three  months' 
inquiry  the  commissioner.  Sir  Theophilus  Shepstone, 
exercised  this  power  upon  April  12,  1877,  and  his  act 
was  approved  by  the  High  Commissioner  at  the  Cape 
and  by  the  Colonial  Secretary  in  England.  President 
Burgers  had  endeavored  to  rouse  his  people  to  reform  by 
pointing  out  that  only  through  reforms  could  they  preserve 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA,  1854-95  159 

their  independence.  They  agreed  to  the  reforms,  but  would 
not  help  him  to  carry  them  out,  and  obstinately  refused  to 
pay  taxes.  He  was  helpless,  for  while  a  section  of  the  pop- 
ulation supported  Paul  Kruger,  his  opponent  in  the 
approaching  presidential  election,  others  (especially  the 
English  who  had  settled  in  the  spots  where  a  little  gold 
had  been  found)  favored  annexation  to  Great  Britain, 
and  most  had  been  repelled  by  his  unorthodox  opin- 
ions. Accordingly,  after  entering  a  protest  against 
the  annexation,  he  returned  to  Cape  Colony  and  received 
a  pension,  his  private  means  having  been  entirely  spent 
in  the  service  of  his  country.^  The  Vice-President  (Mr. 
Paul  Kruger)  and  the  executive  council  of  the  Republic 
also  protested  and  sent  delegates  to  London  to  remon- 
strate. By  the  mass  of  the  Boer  people — for  the  few 
English,  of  course,  approved— little  displeasure  was 
shown  and  no  resistance  made.  Had  a  popular  vote  been 
taken  it  would  doubtless  have  been  adverse  to  annexa- 
tion, for  a  memorial  circulated  shortly  afterward,  pray- 
ing for  a  reversal  of  Sir  T.  Shepstone's  act,  received  the 
signatures  of  a  large  majority  of  the  Boer  citizens. 
But  while  they  regretted  their  independence,  they  had 
been  so  much  depressed  by  their  disasters,  and  were  so 
much  relieved  to  know  that  the  strong  arm  of  Britain 
would  now  repel  any  Kafir  invasion,  as  to  take  the  change 
more  quietly  than  any  one  who  remembered  their  earlier 
history  would  have  expected. 

On  the  English  public,  which  knew  little  and  cared  less 

1  Some  interesting  extracts  from  the  narrative,  vindicating  his 
conduct,  which  he  had  prepared  and  which  was  published  after  his 
death  (in  1882),  maybe  found  in  Mr.  John  Nixon's  "Complete  Story 
of  the  Transvaal,"  an  interesting  book,  though  written  in  no  judicial 
spirit. 


160 


IMPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


about  South  African  affairs,  the  news  that  their  empire 
had  been  extended  by  a  territory  nearly  as  large  as  the 
United  Kingdom,  though  it  came  as  a  complete  surprise, 
produced  little  impression.  They  were  then  excited  over 
the  outbreak  of  the  war  between  Russia  and  the  Turks, 
and  the  keen  party  struggles  which  Lord  Beaconsfleld's 
apparent  desire  to  help  the  Turks  had  caused  in  England, 
so  that  scant  attention  was  given  to  a  distant  colonial 
question.  A  motion  condemning  the  annexation  which 
was  brought  forward  in  the  House  of  Commons  received 
no  support.  Nearly  all  of  those  few  who  cared  about 
South  Africa  had  been  alienated  from  the  Boers  by  their 
treatment  of  the  natives.  Scarcely  any  one  foresaw  the 
long  series  of  troubles,  not  yet  ended,  to  which  the  annex- 
ation was  destined  to  give  rise.  Neither  did  it  create 
any  serious  opposition  in  Cape  Colony,  though  the  Dutch 
element  there  regarded  with  misgivings  the  withdrawal 
of  independence  from  their  emigrant  kinsfolk. 

To  those  who  look  back  now  at  the  act,  in  the  Hght  of 
the  events  that  followed,  it  seems  a  highhanded  proceed- 
ing to  deprive  of  its  independence  a  republic  which 
had  been  formally  recognized  twenty-five  years  before, 
and  to  do  this  without  giving  the  people  an  opportunity 
of  declaring  their  wishes.  Yet  the  act  was  not  done  in  a 
spirit  of  rapacity.  Neither  the  British  government  nor 
the  British  people  had  the  least  idea  of  the  wealth  that 
lay  hidden  beneath  the  barren  and  solitary  ridges  of  the 
Witwatersrand.  No  one  in  England  talked  (though  the 
notion  had  crossed  a  few  ambitious  minds)  of  pushing 
British  dominion  up  to  the  Zambesi.  The  Transvaal  Re- 
public was  bankrupt  and  helpless,  distracted  by  internal 
quarrels,  unable  to  collect  any  taxes,  apparently  unable  to 
defend  itself  against  its  Kafir  enemies,  and  likely  to  be  the 
cause  of  native  troubles  which  might  probably  spread  till 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA,  1854-95  161 

they  affected  all  Europeans  in  South  Africa.  There  was 
some  reason  to  believe  that  the  citizens,  though  they 
had  not  been  consulted,  would  soon  acquiesce  in  the 
change,  especially  when  they  found,  as  they  soon  did  find, 
that  the  value  of  property  rose  with  the  prospect  of  se- 
curity and  of  the  carrying  out  of  internal  improvements 
by  a  strong  and  wealthy  power.  Such  was  certainly 
the  belief  of  Sir  T.  Shepstone  and  of  Lord  Carnarvon, 
and  it  seemed  to  be  confirmed  by  the  apparent  tranquillity 
with  which  the  annexation  was  received  by  the  Boers. 

So,  indeed,  they  might  have  acquiesced,  notwithstanding 
their  strenuous  love  of  independence,  had  they  been  wisely 
dealt  with.  But  the  British  government  proceeded  forth- 
with to  commit  three  capital  blunders. 

The  first  of  these,  and  the  least  excusable,  was  the  fail- 
ure to  grant  that  local  autonomy  which  Sir  T.  Shepstone 
had  announced  when  he  proclaimed  annexation.  The 
Volksraad  which  the  people  were  promised  was  never  con- 
voked; the  constitution  under  which  they  were  to  enjoy 
self-government  was  never  promulgated.  There  was  no 
intention  to  break  these  promises,  but  merely  a  delay,  cul- 
pable, indeed,  but  due  to  ignorance  of  the  popular  Boer 
sentiment,  and  to  the  desire  of  the  Colonial  Ofi&ce  to  carry 
out  its  pet  scheme  of  South  African  confederation  before 
concediug  to  the  Transvaal  such  a  representative  assem- 
bly as  would  have  had  the  power  to  reject,  on  behaK  of 
the  people,  the  scheme  when  tendered  to  them.  Nor  were 
matters  mended  when  at  last  a  legislature  was  granted,  to 
consist  of  some  officials  and  six  members  nominated  by 
the  governor,  for  this  made  the  people  fear  that  a  genuine 
freely  elected  Volksraad  would  never  be  conceded  at  aU. 

The  second  blunder  was  the  selection  of  the  person  who 

was  to  administer  the  country.    Sir  T.  Shepstone,  who 

knew  it  weU  and  was  Hked  by  the  people,  was  replaced  by 
11 


162  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


a  military  officer  who  had  shown  vigor  in  dealing  with 
a  native  rising  but  was  totally  unfit  for  delicate  po- 
litical work.  As  representative  government  had  not 
yet  been  introduced,  his  administration  was  necessarily 
autocratic  in  form,  and  became  autocratic  in  spirit  also. 
He  was  described  to  me  by  some  who  knew  him  as  stiff 
in  mind  and  arrogant  in  temper,  incapable  of  making 
allowances  for  the  homely  manners  of  the  Boers  and  of 
adapting  himself  to  the  social  equality  which  prevailed 
among  them.  A  trifling  cause  aggravated  their  dislike. 
His  complexion  was  swarthy,  and  they  suspected  that  this 
might  be  due  to  some  tinge  of  negro  blood.  He  refused 
to  listen  to  their  complaiuts,  levied  taxes  strictly,  causing 
even  the  beloved  ox- wagon  to  be  seized  when  money  was 
not  forthcoming,  and  soon  turned  their  smoldering  dis- 
content into  active  disaffection. 

Finally  the  Bi'itish  government  removed  the  two  native 
dangers  which  the  Boers  had  feared.  An  expedition  under 
Sir  Garnet  Wolseley  reduced  Sikukuni's  strongholds  and 
established  peace  in  the  northeast.  In  1879,  Sir  Bartle 
Frere's  war  with  Cetewayo  destroyed  the  Zulu  power,  the 
dread  of  which  might  have  induced  the  Boers  to  resign 
themselves  to  British  supremacy.  It  was  probably  ne- 
cessary to  deal  with  Sikukuni,  though  the  British  govern- 
ment seems  to  have  forgotten  its  former  doubts  as  to  the 
right  of  the  Boers  to  the  territory  of  that  chief ;  but  in 
extinguishing  the  Zulu  kingdom  the  High  Commissioner 
would  seem  to  have  forgotten  that  he  was  also  extinguish- 
ing the  strongest  motive  which  the  republicans  had  for 
remaining  British  subjects.  The  British  government 
were  doubly  unfortunate.  It  was  the  annexation  of  the 
Transvaal  in  1877  that  had  alarmed  Cetewayo  and  helped 
to  precipitate  the  war  of  1879.    It  was  now  the  overthrow 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA,  1854-95  163 

of  Cetewayo,  their  formidable  enemy,  that  helped  to  pre- 
cipitate a  revolt  of  the  Boers. 

At  this  time,  however,  everybody  in  British  South 
Africa,  and  nearly  everybody  in  England,  supposed  the 
annexation  to  be  irrevocable.  Leading  members  of  the 
parhamentary  opposition  had  condemned  it.  But  when 
that  opposition,  victorious  in  the  general  election  of  1880, 
took  office  in  April  of  that  year,  the  officials  in  South 
Africa  whose  guidance  they  sought  made  light  of  Boer 
discontent,  and  declared  that  it  would  be  impossible  now 
to  undo  what  had  been  done  in  1877.  Thus  misled,  the 
new  cabinet  refused  to  reverse  the  annexation,  saying 
by  the  mouth  of  the  under-secretary  for  the  colonies, 

Fieri  non  debuit,  factum  valet."  This  decision  of  the 
British  government,  which  came  as  a  surprise  upon  the 
recalcitrant  repubhcans  in  the  Transvaal,  precipitated  an 
outbreak.  In  December,  1880,  a  mass-meeting  of  the 
Boers  was  held  at  a  place  called  Paardekraal  (now  Kru- 
gersdorp).  It  was  resolved  to  rise  in  arms ;  and  a  trium- 
virate was  elected,  consisting  of  Messrs.  M.  W.  Pretorius, 
Paul  Kruger,  and  Joubert,  which  proclaimed  the  reestab- 
lishment  of  the  South  African  Republic  and  hoisted  the 
national  flag  on  Dingaan's  day,  December  16.^  The 
Boers,  nearly  every  man  of  whom  was  accustomed  to 
fighting,  now  rose  en  masse  and  attacked  the  small 
detachments  of  British  troops  scattered  through  the 
country,  some  of  which  were  cut  off,  while  the  rest  were 
obliged  to  retire  to  posts  which  they  fortified.  The 
governor  of  Natal,  General  Sir  George  Colley,  raised 
what  troops  he  coidd  in  that  colony,  and  marched  north- 
ward ;  but  before  he  could  reach  the  Transvaal  border  a 
strong  force  of  Boers,  commanded  by  Commandant-Gen- 
1  See  above,  p.  121. 


164 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


eral  Joubert,  crossed  it  and  took  up  a  position  at  Laing's 
Nek,  a  steep  ridge  marking  the  watershed  between 
the  upper  waters  of  the  Klip  River,  a  tributary  of  the 
Vaal,  and  those  of  the  Buffalo  River,  which  joins  the 
Tugela  and  flows  into  the  Indian  Ocean.  Here  the  British 
general,  on  January  28,  1881,  attacked  the  Boers,  but  was 
repulsed  with  heavy  loss,  for  the  ridge  behind  which  they 
were  posted  protected  them  from  his  artillery  while 
their  accurate  rifle  fii'e  cut  down  his  column  as  it  mounted 
the  slope.  A  second  engagement  eleven  days  later  on  the 
Ingogo  heights  caused  severe  loss  to  the  British  troops. 
Finally,  on  the  night  of  February  26,  General  Colley,  with 
a  small  detachment,  seized  by  night  Majuba  Hill,  a  moun- 
tain which  rises  nearly  2000  feet  above  Laiag's  Nek, 
and  completely  commands  that  pass.^  Unfortunately  he 
omitted  to  dii*ect  the  main  force,  which  he  had  left  behind 
at  his  camp,  four  mUes  south  of  the  Nek,  to  advance 
against  the  Boers  and  occupy  their  attention ;  so  the  lat- 
ter, finding  no  movement  made  against  them  in  front,  and 
receiving  no  artillery  fire  from  Majuba  Hill  above  them, 
cheeked  the  first  impulse  to  retke,  which  the  sight  of  Brit- 
ish troops  on  the  hUltop  had  produced,  and  sent  out  a 
volunteer  party  to  scale  the  hill.  Protected  by  the  steep 
declivities  from  the  fire  of  the  soldiers  above  them,  they 
made  their  way  up,  shooting  down  those  whom  they 
saw  against  the  sky-line,  and  finally  routed  the  British 
force,  killing  General  Colley,  with  ninety-two  others,  and 
taking  fifty-nine  piisoners.  By  this  time  fresh  troops 
were  beginning  to  arrive  in  Natal,  and  before  long 
the  British  general  who  had  succeeded  to  the  command 
had  at  his  disposal  a  force  which  the  Boers  could  not  pos- 
sibly have  resisted.    The  home  government,  however,  had 

^  A  description  of  Majuba  Hill  will  be  found  in  a  later  chapter. 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA,  1854-95  165 

ordered  an  armistice  to  be  concluded  (March  5),  and  on 
March  23  terms  were  agreed  to  by  which  the  "  Transvaal 
State  "  (as  it  was  called)  was  again  recognized  as  a  quasi- 
independent  political  commnnity,  to  enjoy  complete  self- 
government  under  the  suzerainty  of  the  British  crown. 
These  terms  were  developed  in  a  more  formal  convention, 
signed  at  Pretoria  in  August,  1881,  which  recognized  the 
Transvaal  as  autonomous,  subject,  however,  to  the  suze- 
rainty of  the  Queen,  to  British  control  in  matters  of  for- 
eign policy,  to  the  obligation  to  allow  British  troops  to 
pass  through  the  RepubUc  in  time  of  war,  and  to  guaran- 
ties for  the  protection  of  the  natives.  The  position  in 
which  the  Transvaal  thus  found  itself  placed  was  a  pecu- 
liar one,  and  something  between  that  of  a  self-governing 
colony  and  an  absolutely  independent  state.  The  nearest 
legal  parallel  is  to  be  found  in  the  position  of  some  of  the 
great  feudatories  of  the  British  crown  in  India,  but  the 
actual  circumstances  were  of  course  too  unlike  those  of 
India  to  make  the  parallel  instructive. 

Few  public  acts  of  our  time  have  been  the  subjects  of 
more  prolonged  and  acrimonious  controversy  than  this 
reversal  in  1881  of  the  annexation  of  1877.  The  British 
government  were  at  the  time  accused,  both  by  the  English 
element  in  the  South  African  colonies,  and  by  their  political 
opponents  at  home,  of  an  ignominious  surrender.  They 
had,  so  it  was  urged,  given  way  to  rebellion.  They  had 
allowed  three  defeats  to  remain  unavenged.  They  had 
weakly  yielded  to  force  what  they  had  repeatedly  and 
solemnly  refused  to  peaceful  petitions.  They  had  disre- 
garded the  pledges  given  both  to  Englishmen  and  to 
natives  in  the  Transvaal.  They  had  done  all  this  for  a  race 
of  men  who  had  been  uniformly  harsh  and  unjust  to  the 
Kafirs,  who  had  brought  their  own  Republic  to  bankruptcy 
11* 


166  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


and  chaos  by  misgoverament,  who  were  and  would  remain 
foes  of  the  British  empire,  who  were  incapable  of  appre- 
ciating magnanimity,  and  would  construe  forbearance 
as  cowardice.  They  had  destroyed  the  prestige  of  British 
power  in  Africa  among  whites  and  blacks,  and  thereby 
sowed  for  themselves  or  their  successors  a  crop  of  future 
difBculties. 

To  these  arguments  it  was  replied  that  the  annexation 
had  been  made,  and  the  earlier  refusals  to  reverse  it  pro- 
nounced, under  a  complete  misapprehension  as  to  the  facts. 
The  representatives  of  the  Colonial  Office  in  South  Africa 
had  reported,  partly  through  insufficient  knowledge,  partly 
because  their  views  were  influenced  by  their  feelings,  that 
there  was  no  such  passion  for  independence  among  the 
Boers  as  events  had  shown  to  exist.  ^  Once  the  true  facts 
were  known,  did  it  not  become  not  merely  unjust  to  deprive 
the  Transvaal  people  of  the  freedom  they  prized  so  highly, 
but  also  impolitic  to  retain  by  force  those  who  would  have 
been  disaffected  and  troublesome  subjects  ?  A  free  nation 
which  professes  to  be  everywhere  the  friend  of  freedom  is 
bound— so  it  was  argued— to  recognize  the  principles  it 
maintains  even  when  they  work  against  itself ;  and  if  these 
considerations  went  to  show  that  the  retrocession  of  the 
Transvaal  was  a  proper  course,  was  it  either  wise  or  hu- 
mane to  prolong  the  war  and  crush  the  Boer  resistance  at 
the  cost  of  much  slaughter,  merely  in  order  to  avenge  de- 
feats and  vindicate  a  military  superiority  which  the  im- 
mensely greater  forces  of  Britain  made  self-e\ddent  ?  A 
great  country  is  strong  enough  to  be  magnanimous,  and 

1  Sir  B.  Frere  reported  after  meeting  the  leaders  of  the  discon- 
tented Boers  in  April,  1879,  that  the  agitation,  though  more  serious 
than  he  supposed,  was  largely  "sentimental,"  and  that  the  quieter 
people  were  being  coerced  by  the  more  violent  into  opposition. 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA,  1854-95  167 

shows  her  greatness  better  by  justice  and  lenity  than  by 
a  sanguinary  revenge.  These  moral  arguments,  which 
affect  different  minds  differently,  were  reinforced  by  a 
strong  ground  of  policy.  The  Boers  of  the  Orange  Free 
State  had  sympathized  warmly  with  theu'  kinsfolk  in 
the  Transvaal,  and  were  with  difficulty  kept  from  cross- 
ing the  border  to  join  them.  The  president  of  the  Free 
State,  a  sagacious  man,  anxious  to  secure  peace,  had  made 
himself  prominent  as  a  mediator,  but  it  was  not  certain 
that  his  citizens  might  not,  even  against  his  advice,  join 
in  the  fighting.  Among  the  Africander  Dutch  of  Cape 
Colony  and  Natal  the  feeling  for  the  Transvaal  Boers  was 
hardly  less  strong,  and  the  accentiiation  of  Diitch  senti- 
ment, caused  by  the  events  of  1880  and  1881,  has  ever 
since  been  a  potent  factor  in  the  politics  of  Cape  Colony. 
The  British  government  were  advised  from  the  Cape  that 
the  invasion  of  the  Transvaal  might  probably  hght  up 
a  civil  war  through  the  two  colonies.  The  power  of 
Great  Britain  would  of  course  have  prevailed,  even 
against  the  whole  Dutch-speaking  popidation  of  South 
Africa;  but  it  would  have  prevailed  only  after  much 
bloodshed,  and  at  the  cost  of  an  intense  embitterment 
of  feeUng,  which  would  have  destroyed  the  prospects 
of  the  peace  and  welfare  of  the  two  colonies  for  many 
years  to  come.  The  loss  of  the  Transvaal  seemed  a 
slight  evil  in  comparison. 

Whether  such  a  race  conffict  would  in  fact  have  brf len 
out  all  over  South  Africa  is  a  question  on  which  opinion 
is  still  divided,  and  about  which  men  may  dispute  forever. 
The  British  government,  however,  deemed  the  risk  of  it  a 
real  one,  and  by  that  view  their  action  was  mainly  gov- 
erned. Alter  careful  inquiries  from  those  best  qualified 
to  judge,  I  am  incUned  to  think  that  they  were  right. 


168  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  APRICA 


It  must,  however,  be  admitted  that  the  event  belied 
some  of  their  hopes.  They  had  expected  that  the  Trans- 
vaal people  would  appreciate  the  generosity  of  the  ret- 
rocession, as  weU  as  the  humanity  which  was  willing 
to  forego  vengeance  for  the  tarnished  luster  of  British 
arms.  The  Boers,  however,  saw  neither  generosity  nor 
humanity  in  their  conduct,  but  only  fear.  Jubilant 
over  their  victories,  and  (like  the  Kafirs  in  the  south 
coast  wars)  not  realizing  the  overwhelming  force  which 
could  have  been  brought  against  them,  they  fancied 
themselves  entitled  to  add  some  measure  of  contempt  to 
the  dislike  they  already  cherished  to  the  English,  and  they 
have  ever  since  shown  themselves  unpleasant  neighbors. 
The  English  in  South  Africa,  on  their  part,  have  con- 
tinued to  resent  the  concession  of  independence  to  the 
Transvaal,  and  especially  the  method  in  which  it  was 
conceded.  Those  who  had  recently  settled  in  the  Re- 
public, reljdng  on  the  declarations  repeatedly  made 
that  it  would  forever  remain  British,  complained  that 
no  proper  compensation  was  made  to  them,  and  that 
they  had  much  to  suffer  from  the  Boers.  Those  who  live 
in  the  two  colonies  hold  that  the  disgrace  (as  they  term 
it)  of  Majuba  Hill  ought  to  have  been  wiped  out  by  a 
march  to  Pretoria,  and  that  the  Boers  should  have  been 
made  to  recognize  that  Britain  is,  and  will  remain,  the 
paramoimt  power  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name.  They  feel 
aggrieved  to  this  day  that  the  terms  of  peace  were  settled 
at  Laing's  Nek,  within  the  territory  of  Natal,  while  it  was 
still  held  by  the  Boers.  Even  in  Cape  Colony,  where  the 
feeling  is  perhaps  less  strong  than  it  is  in  Natal,  the 
average  Englishman  has  neither  forgotten  nor  forgiven 
the  events  of  1881. 

I  have  dwelt  fuUy  upon  these  events  because  they  are, 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  APEICA,  1854-95  169 

next  to  the  Great  Trek  of  1836,  the  most  important  in  the 
internal  history  of  South  Africa,  and  those  which  have 
most  materially  affected  the  present  poUtical  situation. 
The  few  years  that  followed  may  be  more  briefly  dismissed. 
The  Transvaal  State  emerged  from  its  war  of  independ- 
ence penniless  and  unorganized,  but  with  a  redoubled 
sense  of  divine  favor  and  a  reinvigorated  consciousness  of 
national  life.  The  old  constitution  was  set  to  work ;  the 
Volksraad  again  met ;  Mr.  Stephen  John  Paul  Kruger,  who 
had  been  the  leading  figure  in  the  triumvirate,  was  chosen 
by  the  people  to  be  president,  and  has  subsequently  been 
thrice  reelected  to  that  office.  Undismayed  by  the  scanti- 
ness of  his  state  resources,  he  formed  bold  and  far-reaching 
plans  of  advance  on  the  three  sides  which  lay  open  to  him. 
To  the  north  a  trek  was  projected,  and  some  years  later  was 
nearly  carried  out,  for  the  occupation  of  Mashonaland.  To 
the  south  bands  of  Boer  adventurers  entered  Zululand,  the 
first  of  them  as  trekkers,  the  rest  as  auxiliaries  to  one  of 
the  native  chiefs,  who  were  at  war  with  one  another.  These 
adventurers  established  a  sort  of  republic  in  the  northern 
districts,  and  would  probably  have  seized  the  whole 
had  not  the  British  government  at  last  interfered  and 
confined  them  to  a  territory  of  nearly  three  thousand 
square  miles,  which  was  recognized  in  1886  under  the  name 
of  the  New  RepubUc,  and  which  in  1888  merged  itself 
in  the  Transvaal.  To  the  west,  other  bands  of  Boer  raid- 
ers entered  Bechuanaland,  seized  land  or  obtained  grants 
of  land  by  the  usual  devices,  required  the  chiefs  to  acknow- 
ledge their  supremacy,  and  proceeded  to  establish  two  petty 
republics,  one  called  Stellaland,  round  the  village  of  Vry- 
burg,  north  of  Kimberley,  and  the  other,  farther  north, 
called  Groshen.  These  violent  proceedings,  which  were 
not  only  injurious  to  the  natives,  but  were  obviously  part 


170 


niPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  ATRICA 


of  a  plan  to  add  Beclmanalaiid  to  the  Transvaal  territories, 
and  close  against  the  English  the  path  to  those  northern 
regions  in  which  Britain  was  already  interested,  roused  the 
British  government.  In  the  end  of  1884  an  expedition  led 
by  Sir  Charles  Warren  entered  Bechuanaland.  The  free- 
booters of  the  two  republics  retired  before  it,  and  the 
districts  they  had  occupied  were  erected  into  a  Crown 
Colony  under  the  name  of  British  Bechuanaland.  In 
1895  this  tenitory  was  annexed  to  Cape  Colony.  In  order  to 
prevent  the  Boers  from  plajdng  the  same  game  in  the  coun- 
try stiU  farther  north,  where  their  aggressions  had  so  far 
back  as  1876  led  Khama,  chief  of  the  Bamangwato,  to  ask 
for  British  protection,  a  British  protectorate  was  pro- 
claimed (March,  1885)  over  the  whole  country  as  far  as  the 
borders  of  Matabililand ;  and  a  few  years  later,  in  1888,  a 
treaty  was  concluded  with  Lo  Bengula,  the  Matabili  king, 
whereby  he  undertook  not  to  cede  territory  to,  or  make 
a  treaty  with,  any  foreign  power  without  the  consent  of 
the  British  High  Commissioner.  The  west  was  thus 
secured  against  the  further  advance  of  the  Boers,  while  on 
the  eastern  shore  the  hoisting  of  the  British  flag  at  St.  Lucia 
Bay  in  1884  (a  spot  ali'eady  ceded  by  Panda  in  1843),  fol- 
lowed by  the  conclusion  (ia  1887)  of  a  treaty  with  the 
Tonga  chiefs,  by  which  they  undertook  not  to  make  any 
treaty  with  any  other  power,  announced  the  resolution 
of  the  British  crown  to  hold  the  coast  line  up  to  the  Por- 
tuguese territories. 

This  policy  of  preventing  the  extension  of  Boer  domin- 
ion over  the  natives  was,  however,  accompanied  by  a 
willingness  to  oblige  the  Transvaal  people  in  other  ways. 
Though  they  had  not  observed  the  conditions  of  the  con- 
vention of  1881,  the  Boers  had  continued  to  importune 
the  British  government  for  an  ampler  measure  of  inde- 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA,  1854-95  171 

pendence.  In  1884  they  succeeded  in  inducing  Lord 
Derby,  then  Colonial  Secretary,  to  agree  to  a  new  conven- 
tion. It  is  the  basis  of  the  present  relations  between  the 
British  crown  and  the  South  African  RepubUe,  a  title  now 
at  last  formally  conceded.  By  this  instrument  (called 
the  Convention  of  London),  whose  articles  were  sub- 
stituted for  the  articles  of  the  convention  of  1881,  the  con- 
trol of  foreign  policy  stipulated  for  in  the  Pretoria  Conven- 
tion of  1881  was  cut  down  to  a  provision  that  the  Republic 
should  "  conclude  no  treaty  with  any  state  or  nation  other 
than  the  Orange  Free  State,  nor  with  any  native  tribe  to 
the  eastward  or  westward  of  the  Republic,"  without  the 
approval  of  the  Queen.  The  declarations  of  the  two  pre- 
vious conventions  (of  1852  and  1881)  against  slavery  were 
repeated,  and  there  was  a  "  most  favored  nation  "  clause 
with  provisions  for  the  good  treatment  of  strangers  en- 
tering the  Republic.  Nothing  was  said  as  to  the  "  suze- 
rainty of  Her  Majesty"  mentioned  in  the  convention  of 
1881.  The  Boers  have  contended  that  this  omission  is 
equivalent  to  a  renunciation,  but  to  this  it  has  been  (among 
other  things)  replied  that  as  that  suzerainty  was  recog- 
nized not  in  the  "  articles  "  of  the  instrument  of  1881,  but 
in  its  introductory  paragraph,  it  has  not  been  renounced, 
and  still  subsists. 

A  few  years  later,  the  amity  which  this  convention  was 
meant  to  secure  was  endangered  by  the  plan  formed  by  a 
body  of  Boer  farmers  and  adventurers  to  carry  out  the 
idea  previously  formed  by  Mr.  Kruger,  and  trek  north- 
ward into  the  country  beyond  the  Limpopo  River,  a  coun- 
try where  the  natives  were  feeble  and  disunited,  raided  on 
one  side  by  the  Matabili  and  on  the  other  by  Gungunhana. 
This  trek  would  have  brought  the  emigrants  into  collision 
with  the  English  settlers  who  had  shortly  before  entered 


172  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


Mashonaland.  President  Ea-uger,  however,  being  pressed 
by  the  imperial  government,  undertook  to  check  the  move- 
ment, and  so  far  succeeded  that  the  wagons  which  crossed 
the  Limpopo  were  but  few  and  were  easily  turned  back. 
Prevented  from  expanding  to  the  north,  the  Boers  were 
all  the  more  eager  to  acquire  Swaziland,  a  small  but  rich 
territory  which  lies  to  the  east  of  their  Republic,  and  is 
inhabited  by  a  warlike  Kafir  race,  numbering  about 
70,000,  near  of  kin  to  the  Zulus,  but  for  many  years 
hostile  to  them.  Both  the  Boers  and  Cetewayo  had 
formerly  claimed  supremacy  over  this  region.  The  Brit- 
ish government  had  never  admitted  the  Boer  claim,  but 
when  the  head  chief  of  the  Swazis  had,  by  a  series  of  im- 
provident concessions,  granted  away  to  adventurers,  most 
of  them  Boers,  nearly  aU  the  best  land  and  minerals  the 
country  contained,  it  was  found  extremely  difficult  to  con- 
tinue the  system  of  joint  administration  by  the  High  Com- 
missioner and  the  Transvaal  government  which  had  been 
provisionally  established,  and  all  the  more  difficult  because 
by  the  concession  to  the  New  Republic  (which  had  by  this 
time  become  incorporated  with  the  Transvaal)  of  the  part 
of  Zululand  which  adjoined  Swa2dland,  direct  communica- 
tion between  Natal  and  Swaziland  had  become  difficult, 
especially  in  the  malarious  season.  Accordingly,  after 
long  negotiations,  an  arrangement  was  concluded,  in 
1894,  which  placed  the  Swazi  nation  and  territory  under 
the  control  of  the  South  African  Republic,  subject  to 
fuU  guaranties  for  the  protection  of  the  natives.  A  pre- 
vious convention  (of  1890)  had  given  the  South  African 
Republic  certain  rights  of  making  a  railway  to  the  coast 
at  Kosi  Bay  through  the  low  and  malarious  region  which 
lies  between  Swaziland  and  the  sea,  and  the  earlier  nego- 
tiations had  proceeded  on  the  assumption  that  these  rights 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA,  1854-95  173 

■were  to  be  adjusted  and  renewed  in  the  same  instrument 
which,  was  destined  to  settle  the  Swaziland  question. 
The  Boer  government,  however,  ultimately  declined  to 
include  such  an  adjustment  in  the  new  convention,  and  as 
this  new  convention  superseded  and  extinguished  the 
former  one  of  1890,  those  provisions  for  access  to  the  sea 
necessarily  lapsed.  The  British  government  promptly 
availed  itself  of  the  freedom  its  rivals  had  thus  tendered 
to  it,  and  with  the  consent  of  the  three  chiefs  (of  Tonga 
race)  who  rule  in  the  region  referred  to,  proclaimed  a 
protectorate  over  the  strip  of  land  which  lies  between 
Swaziland  and  the  far  north  as  the  frontiers  of 

Portuguese  territory.  Thus  the  door  has  been  finally 
closed  on  the  schemes  which  the  Boers  have  so  often 
formed  and  tried  to  carry  out  for  the  acquisition  of  a 
railway  communication  with  the  coast  entirely  under  their 
own  control.  It  was  an  object  unfavorable  to  the  inter- 
ests of  the  paramount  power,  for  it  would  not  only  have 
disturbed  the  commercial  relations  of  the  interior  with 
the  British  coast  ports,  but  would  also  have  favored  the 
wish  of  the  Boer  government  to  establish  political  ties 
with  other  European  powers.  The  accomplishment  of 
that  design  was  no  doubt  subjected  by  the  London  con- 
vention of  1884  to  the  veto  of  Britain.  But  in  diplomacy 
facts  as  well  as  treaties  have  their  force,  and  a  Power 
which  has  a  seaport,  and  can  fly  a  flag  on  the  ocean,  is  in 
a  very  different  position  from  one  cut  off  by  intervening 
territories  from  those  whose  support  it  is  supposed  to 
seek.  Thus  the  establishment  of  the  protectorate  over 
these  petty  Tonga  chiefs  may  be  justly  deemed  one  of 
the  most  important  events  in  recent  South  African  his- 
tory. 

Down  to  1884  Great  Britain  and  Portugal  had  been  the 


174  IMPEESSIONS  OP  SOUTH  AFRICA 


only  European  powers  established  in  South  Africa.  For 
some  time  before  that  year  there  had  been  German  mission 
stations  in  parts  of  the  region  which  Ues  between  the 
Orange  River  and  the  West  African  possessions  of  Portu- 
gal, and  in  1883  a  Bremen  merchant  named  Liideritz 
established  a  trading-factory  at  the  bay  of  Angra  Pequeha, 
which  lies  on  the  Atlantic  coast  about  one  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  north  of  the  mouth  of  that  river,  and  obtained 
from  a  neighboring  chief  a  cession  of  a  piece  of  territory 
there,  which  the  German  government  a  few  months  later 
recognized  as  a  German  colony.  Five  years  earUer,  in 
1878,  Walflsh  Bay,  which  lies  farther  north,  and  is  the 
best  haven  (or  rather  roadstead)  on  the  coast,  had  been  an- 
nexed to  Cape  Colony ;  but  though  it  was  generally  under- 
stood, both  in  the  Colony  and  in  England,  that  the  whole  of 
the  west  coast  up  to  the  Portuguese  boundary  was  in  some 
vague  way  subject  to  British  influence,  nothing  had  been 
done  to  claim  any  distinct  right,  much  less  to  perfect  that 
right  by  occupation.  The  Colony  had  always  declined  or 
omitted  to  vote  money  for  the  purpose,  and  the  home 
government  had  not  cared  to  spend  any.  When  the  colo- 
nists knew  that  Germany  was  reaUy  establishing  herself 
as  their  neighbor  on  the  north,  they  were  much  annoyed ; 
but  it  was  now  too  late  to  resist,  and  iu  1884,  after  a 
long  correspondence,  not  creditable  to  the  foresight  or 
promptitude  of  the  late  Lord  Derby,  who  was  then  Colo- 
nial Secretary,  the  protectorate  of  Germany  was  formally 
recognized,  while  in  1890  the  boundaries  of  the  German 
and  British  "spheres  of  influence"  farther  north  were 
defined,  by  a  formal  agreement — the  same  agreement  which 
settled  the  respective  "  spheres  of  influence "  of  the  two 
powers  in  eastern  Africa,  between  the  Zambesi  and  the 
Upper  Nile.    Although  the  people  of  Cape  Colony  continue 


THE  EUKOPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFEICA,  1854-95  175 

to  express  their  regret  at  having  a  great  European  power 
conterminous  with  them  on  the  north,  there  has  been 
really  little  or  no  practical  contact  between  the  Germans 
and  the  colonists,  for  while  the  northern  part  of  the  Col- 
ony, lying  along  the  lower  course  of  the  Orange  River,  is 
so  arid  as  to  be  very  thinly  peopled,  the  southern  part  of 
the  German  territory,  called  Great  Namaqualand,  is  nearly 
aU  desert,  and  inhabited  only  by  wandering  Hottentots, 
while,  to  the  west,  Namaqualand  is  separated  from  the 
habitable  parts  of  British  Bechuanaland  by  the  great 
Kalahari  Desert. 

The  new  impulse  for  colonial  expansion  which  had 
prompted  the  Germans  to  occupy  Damaraland  and  the 
Cameroons  on  the  western,  and  the  Zanzibar  coasts  on  the 
eastern,  side  of  Africa  was  now  telling  on  other  European 
powers,  and  made  them  all  join  in  the  scramble  for  Africa, 
a  continent  which,  a  few  years  before  had  been  deemed 
worthless.  Italy  and  France  entered  the  field  in  the  north- 
east, France  in  the  northwest,  and  Britain,  which  had  in 
earlier  days  moved  with  such  slow  and  wavering  steps  in 
the  far  south,  was  roused  by  the  competition  to  a  swifter 
advance.  Within  nine  years  from  the  assumption  of  the 
protectorate  over  British  Bechuanaland,  which  the  action 
of  the  Boers  had  brought  about  in  1885,  the  whole  im- 
appropriated  country,  up  to  the  Zambesi,  came  under 
British  control. 

In  1888  a  treaty  made  with  Lo  Bengula  extended  the 
range  of  British  influence  and  claim  not  only  over  Mata- 
bililand  proper,  but  over  Mashonaland  and  an  undefined 
territory  to  the  eastward  over  which  Lo  Bengula  claimed  to 
be  suzerain.  Next  came,  in  1889,  the  grant  of  a  royal 
charter  to  a  company,  known  as  the  British  South  Africa 
Company,  which  had  been  formed  to  develop  this  eastern 


176  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


side  of  Lo  Bengiila's  dominion,  and  to  work  the  gold-mines 
believed  to  exist  there,  an  undertaking  chiefly  due  to  the 
bold  and  forceful  spirit  of  Mr.  Cecil  Rhodes,  who  perceived 
that  if  Britain  did  not  speedily  establish  some  right  to  the 
country,  the  Transvaal  Boers  would  trek  in  and  acquire  it. 
In  1890  the  pioneer  British  settlers  moved  up  through  Bech- 
uanaland  into  Mashonaland,  and  the  Company,  which,  like 
the  East  India  Company  of  the  eighteenth  century,  was  to 
be  a  ruling  and  administering  power  as  well  as  a  trading 
association,  established  itself  along  the  eastern  part  of  the 
great  plateau  and  began  to  buUd  forts.  Here  it  came 
into  collision  with  the  Portuguese,  who,  stimulated  by  the 
activity  of  other  nations,  had  been  reasserting  their  dor- 
mant claims  to  the  interior  and  sending  up  expeditions 
to  occupy  the  country.  A  skirmish  which  occurred  near 
Massikessi,  in  Manicaland,  ended  in  the  repulse  of  the 
Portuguese  and  the  capture  of  their  commanders,  who 
were,  however,  soon  after  released  by  Dr.  Jameson,  the 
newly  appointed  administrator  of  the  Company ;  and  an- 
other conflict  in  May,  1891,  in  which  the  Portuguese 
again  suffered  severely,  hastened  the  conclusion  of  a  treaty 
(June,  1891)  between  GTreat  Britain  and  Portugal,  by 
which  the  boundary  between  the  Portuguese  territories 
and  those  included  in  the  British  "  sphere  of  influence " 
was  fixed.  By  this  treaty  a  vast  region  in  the  interior 
which  lies  along  the  Upper  Zambesi  west  of  Portuguese 
territory  and  south  of  the  Congo  Free  State  was  recog- 
nized by  Portugal  as  within  the  British  sphere.  An 
agreement  of  the  preceding  year  between  Germany  and 
Great  Britain  (July  1, 1890)  had  defined  the  limits  of  Ger- 
man and  British  influence  on  the  east  side  of  the  continent ; 
and  as  Germany,  Portugal,  and  the  Congo  State  were  the 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA,  1854-95  177 


only  civilized  powers  conterminous  with  Great  Britain  in 
this  part  of  the  world,  these  treaties,  together  with  the 
instrument— to  which  Great  Britain  had  been  a  party — 
that  determined  the  limits  of  the  Congo  State,  settled 
finally  all  these  questions  of  the  interior,  and  gave  to 
Great  Britain  a  legal  title  to  her  share  of  it. 

That  title,  however,  like  the  other  titles  by  which  the 
European  powers  hold  their  new  African  possessions,  was 
a  paper  title,  and  valid  only  as  against  other  neighboring 
European  powers.  It  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with 
the  Kafir  tribes  who  dwelt  in  the  country.  What  are 
called  the  rights  of  a  civilized  Power  as  against  the  natives 
rest  in  some  cases  upon  treaties  made  with  the  chiefs, 
treaties  of  whose  effect  it  may  be  feared  that  the  chiefs 
are  often  ignorant;  and  in  others  on  the  mere  will  of 
the  European  Power  which  proclaims  to  the  world  that  it 
claims  the  country ;  and  it  is  held  that  the  Power  which 
makes  the  claim  must,  at  least  in  the  latter  class  of  cases, 
perfect  its  claim  by  actual  occupation.  In  the  case  of  these 
new  British  territories  treaties  were  made  with  a  certain 
number  of  chiefs.  One  already  existed  with  Lo  Bengula, 
king  of  the  MatabUi;  but  it  merely  bound  him  not  to 
league  himself  with  any  other  power,  and  did  not  make 
him  a  British  vassal.  It  was  clear,  however,  that  with  so 
restless  and  warlike  a  race  as  the  Matabili  this  state  of 
things  could  not  last  long.  Lo  Bengula  had  been  annoyed 
at  the  march  of  the  pioneers  into  Mashonaland,  and  tried 
to  stop  them,  but  was  foiled  by  the  swiftness  of  their 
movements.  Once  they  were  established  there  he  seems 
to  have  desired  to  keep  the  peace ;  but  his  j'^oung  warriors 
would  not  suffer  him  to  do  so.  They  had  been  accustomed 
to  raids  among  the  feeble  and  disunited  Mashonas,  whom 

12 


178 


IMPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


they  slaughtered  and  plundered  to  their  hearts'  content 
"When  they  found  the  Company  disposed  to  protect  these 
victims,  collisions  occurred,  and  any  reluctance  to  fight 
which  Lo  Bengula  may  have  felt,  and  probably  did  feel, 
counted  for  nothing.  What  he  could  do,  he  did :  he  pro- 
tected with  scrupulous  care  not  only  the  missionaries,  but 
other  Europeans,  at  his  kraal,  and,  after  the  war  had 
broken  out,  he  sent  envoys  to  treat,  two  of  whom,  by  a 
deplorable  mistake,  were  killed  by  the  advancing  column 
of  Bechuanaland  imperial  police,  for  as  the  Company's 
ofiicers  were  not  at  the  moment  prepared,  either  in  money 
or  in  men,  for  a  conflict,  the  Imperial  Government  sent  a 
force  northward  from  Bechuanaland  to  cooperate  with 
that  which  the  Company  had  in  Mashonaland.  A  raid  by 
Matabih  warriors  on  the  Mashonas  living  near  Fort  Vic- 
toria, whom  they  called  their  slaves,  precipitated  hostOities 
(July  to  October,  1893).  The  Matabili,  whose  vain  con- 
fidence in  their  own  prowess  led  them  to  attack  in  the 
open  when  they  ought  to  have  resorted  to  bush  fighting, 
were  defeated  in  two  battles  by  the  Company's  men.  Lo 
Bengula  fled  toward  the  Zambesi  and  died  there  (Jan- 
uary, 1894)  of  fever  and  despair,  as  Shere  Ali  Khan  had 
died  when  chased  out  of  Kabul  by  the  British  in  1878 ; 
while  his  indunas  and  the  bulk  of  the  Matabili  people 
submitted  with  little  further  resistance.  Matabililand 
was  now  occupied  by  the  Company,  which  shortly  after- 
ward took  possession  of  the  northern  part  of  its  sphere 
of  operations  by  running  a  telegraph-wire  across  the 
Zambesi  and  by  placing  officers  on  the  shore  of  Lake 
Tanganyika.  In  March,  1896,  the  Matabih  and  some 
of  the  Mashona  chiefs  revolted,  but  after  five  months' 
fighting,  in  which  many  Hves  were  lost,  peace  was  restored, 
and  the  rapid  progress  of  two  railways  into  the  heai-t  of 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA,  1854-95  179 

the  country  of  these  tribes  gives  a  great,  if  not  complete, 
security  against  a  renewal  of  like  troubles.^ 

By  the  establishment  of  the  British  South  Africa  Com- 
pany to  the  north  of  the  Transvaal  that  state  had  now 
become  inclosed  in  British  territory  on  every  side  except 
the  east ;  nor  could  it  advance  eastward,  because  Portu- 
gal was  bound  by  the  Arbitration  Treaty  of  1872  to  allow 
Great  Britain  a  right  of  preemption  over  her  dominions. 
Meantime  new  forces  had  begun  to  work  within  the  Re- 
public. Between  1867  and  1872  gold  had  been  found  in 
several  places  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  country,  but  in 
quantities  so  small  that  no  one  attached  much  importance 
to  the  discovery.  After  1882,  however,  it  began  to  be  pretty 
largely  worked.  In  1885  the  conglomerate  or  hmiTcet  beds 
of  the  Witwatersrand  were  discovered,  and  the  influx  of 
strangers,  which  had  been  considerable  from  1882  onward, 
increased  immensely  till  in  1895  the  number  of  recent 
immigrants,  most  of  whom  were  adult  males,  had  risen  to 
a  number  largely  exceeding  that  of  the  whole  Boer  popu- 
lation, including  women  and  children.  Although  the  first 
result  of  the  working  of  the  gold-mines  and  the  growth  of 
the  towns  had  been  to  swell  the  revenues  of  the  previously 
impecunious  Republic,  President  Kruger  and  the  Boers 
generally  were  alarmed  at  seeing  a  tide  of  aliens  from  the 
colonies  and  Europe  and  the  United  States,  most  of  them 
British  subjects,  and  nearly  aU  speaking  English,  rise  up 
around  and  threaten  to  submerge  them.  They  proceeded 
to  defend  themselves  by  restricting  the  electoral  franchise 
which  had  theretofore  been  easily  acquirable  by  immi- 
grants. Laws  were  passed  which,  by  excluding  the  new- 
comers, kept  the  native  Boer  element  in  a  safe  majority, 
and  even  when  in  1890  a  concession  was  made  by  the 
1  See  further  as  to  this  rising  some  remarks  in  Chapter  XV. 


180  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


creation  of  a  second  legislative  chamber,  based  on  a  more 
extended  francMse,  its  powers  were  carefully  restricted, 
and  the  election  not  only  of  the  First  Kaad  (the  principal 
chamber),  but  also  of  the  president  and  executive  council, 
remained  confined  to  those  who  had  full  citizenship 
under  the  previous  statutes.  Discontent  spread  among 
the  new  comers,  who  complained  both  of  their  exclusion 
from  political  rights  and  of  various  grievances  which  they 
and  the  mining  industry  suffered  at  the  hands  of  the 
government.  A  reform  association  was  formed  in  1893. 
In  1894  the  visit  of  the  British  High  Commissioner,  who 
had  come  from  the  Cape  to  negotiate  with  the  President 
about  Swaziland,  led  to  a  vehement  pro-British  and  anti- 
Boer  demonstration  at  the  town  of  Johannesburg,  the  new 
center  of  the  Rand  mining  district  and  of  the  immigrant 
population.  Finally,  in  December,  1895,  a  rising  took 
place  at  Johannesburg,  the  circumstances  attending  which 
may  be  set  forth  in  the  briefest  way,  for  the  uncontro- 
verted  facts  are  fresh  in  every  one's  recollection,  while 
an  attempt  to  discuss  the  controverted  ones  would  lead 
me  from  the  field  of  history  into  that  of  contemporaiy 
politics.^  It  is  enough  to  say  while  a  large  section  of  the 
Uitlanders  (as  the  new  alien  immigrants  are  called)  in  Jo- 
hannesbnrg  were  preparing  to  press  theu'  claims  for  re- 
forms upon  the  government,  and  to  provide  themselves 
with  arms  for  that  purpose,  an  outbreak  was  precipitated 
by  the  entry  into  Transvaal  territory  from  Pitsani  ia 
Bechuanaland  of  a  force  of  about  five  himdred  men, 

1  The  salient  facts  may  be  found  in  the  evidence  taken  by  the 
committee  of  inquiry  appointed  by  the  Cape  Assembly  in  1896.  The 
much  more  copious  evidence  taken  by  a  select  committee  of  the 
British  House  of  Commons  in  1897  adds  comparatively  little  of  im- 
portance to  what  the  Cape  committee  had  ascertained. 


THE  EUROPEANS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA,  1854-95  181 


mostly  in  the  service  of  the  British  South  Africa  Com- 
pany as  police,  and  led  by  the  Company's  Administrator, 
with  whom  (and  with  Mr.  Rhodes,  the  managing  director 
of  the  Company)  a  prior  arrangement  had  been  made  by 
the  reform  leaders,  that  in  case  of  trouble  at  Johannes- 
burg he  should,  if  summoned,  come  to  the  aid  of  the 
Uitlander  movement.  A  question  as  to  the  flag  under 
which  the  movement  was  to  be  made  caused  a  postpone- 
ment of  the  day  previously  fixed  for  making  it.  The 
leaders  of  the  force  at  Pitsani,  however,  became  impatient, 
thinking  that  the  Boer  government  was  beginning  to  sus- 
pect their  intentions;  and  thus,  though  requested  to  re- 
main qidet,  the  force  started  on  the  evening  of  December 
29.  Had  they  been  able,  as  they  expected,  to  get  through 
without  fighting,  they  might  probably  have  reached 
Johannesburg  in  three  or  four  days'  march,  for  the  dis- 
tance is  only  one  hundred  and  seventy  miles.  Biat  while 
the  High  Commissioner  issued  a  proclamation  disavowing 
their  action  and  ordering  them  to  retire,  they  found  them- 
selves opposed  by  the  now  rapidly  gathering  Boer  levies, 
were  repidsed  at  Kxugersdorp,  and  ultimately  forced  to 
surrender  on  the  forenoon  of  January  1,  1896,  at  a  place 
called  Doornkop.  The  Johannesburg  Uitlanders,  who, 
though  unprepared  for  any  such  sudden  movement,  had 
risen  in  sympathy  at  the  news  of  the  inroad,  laid  down 
their  arms  a  few  days  later.  ^ 

I  have  given  the  bare  outline  of  these  latest  events  in 

1  Of  the  many  accounts  of  the  incidents  that  led  to  this  rising 
which  have  appeared,  the  clearest  and  one  of  the  fairest  I  have  met 
with  is  contained  in  the  book  of  M.  Mermeix,  "La  Revolution  de 
Johannesburg,"  while  the  simplest  and  one  of  the  most  graphic  is 
that  given  by  an  American  lady  (Mrs.  J.  H.  Hammond),  in  her  little 
book  entitled  "A  Woman's  Part  in  a  Revolution." 

12* 


182  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


South  African  history  for  the  sake  of  bringing  the  narra- 
tive down  to  the  date  when  I  began  to  write.  But  as  I 
was  at  Pretoria  and  Johannesburg  immediately  before  the 
rising  of  December,  1895,  took  place,  and  had  good  oppor- 
tunities of  seeing  what  forces  were  at  work,  and  in  what 
direction  the  currents  of  opinion  were  setting,  I  propose 
to  give  in  a  subsequent  chapter  a  somewhat  fuller  de- 
scription of  the  state  of  things  in  the  Transvaal  at  the  end 
of  1895,  and  to  reserve  for  a  stiU  later  chapter  some  general 
reflections  on  the  course  of  South  African  history. 


CHAPTER  XIII 


TRAVELING  AND  COMMUNICATIONS 

THERE  is  notMng  one  wants  more  to  know  about  a 
country,  and  especially  a  new  country,  than  how  one 
can  travel  through  it.  There  was  nothing  about  which, 
when  contemplating  a  journey  to  South  Africa,  I  found  it 
more  difficult  to  get  proper  information  in  England ;  so  I 
hope  that  a  few  facts  and  hints  will  be  useful  to  those  who 
mean  to  make  the  tour,  while  to  others  they  may  serve  to 
give  a  notion  of  the  conditions  which  help  or  obstruct  in- 
ternal communication. 

First,  as  to  coast  travel.  There  is  no  line  of  railway 
running  along  the  coast,  partly  because  the  towns  are  smaU, 
as  well  as  few  and  far  between,  partly  because  the  physical 
difficulties  of  constructing  a  railway  aci-oss  the  ridges 
which  run  down  to  the  sea  are  considerable,  but  chiefly, 
no  doubt,  because  the  coasting-steamers  are  able  to  do  what 
is  needed.  The  large  vessels  of  the  Castle  Line  and  the 
Union  Line  run  once  a  week  between  Cape  Town  and 
Durban  (the  port  of  Natal),  calling  at  Port  Elizabeth  and 
East  London,  sometimes  also  at  Mossel  Bay.  Thus  one 
can  find  two  opportunities  every  week  of  getting  east  or 
west  in  powerful  ocean  steamers,  besides  such  chances  a,s 
smaller  vessels,  designed  for  fi'cight  rather  than  for 

183 


184  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


passengers,  supply.  From  Durban  there  is  one  weekly- 
boat  as  far  as  Delagoa  Bay,  a  voyage  of  about  twenty- 
four  hours.  From  Delagoa  Bay  northward  to  Beira  and 
Mozambique  the  traveler  must  rely  on  the  steamers  of 
the  German  East  Africa  Line,  which  nm  from  Hamburg 
through  the  Red  Sea  all  the  way  to  Durban,  making  the 
entire  voyage  in  about  seven  weeks.  The  drawbacks  to 
these  coast  voyages  are  that  the  sea  is  apt  to  be  rough 
between  Cape  Town  and  Durban,  less  frequently  so 
between  Durban  and  Beira,  and  that  there  is  no  sheltered 
port  between  Cape  Town  and  Delagoa  Bay.  At  Port 
Elizabeth  and  at  East  London  the  large  steamers  lie  out 
in  the  ocean,  and  passengers  reach  the  land  by  a  small 
tender,  into  which  they  are  let  down  in  a  sort  of  basket, 
if  there  is  a  sea  running,  and  occasionally,  if  the  sea  be 
very  high,  obliged  to  wait  for  a  day  or  more  until  the 
tender  can  take  them  off.  Similar  conditions  have  pre- 
vailed at  Durban,  where  a  bar  has  hitherto  prevented  the 
big  Hners,  except  under  veiy  favorable  conditions  of 
tide  and  weather,  from  entering  the  otherwise  excellent 
port.  Much,  however,  has  recently  been  done  to  remove 
the  Durban  bar,  and  it  is  expected  that  large  steamers 
will  soon  be  able  to  cross  it  at  high  tide.  At  Delagoa 
Bay  the  harbor  is  spacious  and  sheltered,  though  the 
approach  requires  care  and  is  not  well  buoyed  and  lighted. 
At  Beira  the  haven  is  stUl  better,  and  can  be  entered  at 
all  states  of  the  tide.  There  is  now  a  brisk  goods  trade, 
both  along  the  coast  between  the  ports  I  have  mentioned, 
and  from  Europe  to  each  of  them. 

Secondly,  as  to  the  railways.  The  railway  system  is  a 
simple  one.  A  great  trunk-Une  runs  northeastward  from 
Cape  Town  to  a  place  called  De  Aar  Jimction,  in  the  east- 
ern part  of  the  Colony.    Here  it  bifurcates.    One  branch 


TRAVELING  AND  COMMUNICATIONS  185 


runs  first  east  and  thennortli-nortlieast  tkrough  the  Orange 
Free  State  and  the  Transvaal  to  Pretoria ;  the  other  runs 
north  by  east  to  Kimberley  and  Mafeking,  and  is  now 
being  continued  through  Bechuanaland  to  Bulawayo.  The 
distance  from  Cape  Town  to  Pretoria  is  ten  hundred  and 
forty  miles,  and  the  journey  takes  (by  the  fastest  train) 
fifty-two  hours.  From  Cape  Town  to  Mafeking  it  is 
eight  hundred  and  seventy-five  miles,  the  journey  taking 
about  fifty  hours.  From  this  trunk-line  two  important 
branches  run  southward  to  the  coast,  one  to  Port  EHza- 
beth,  the  other  to  East  London ;  and  by  these  branches  the 
goods  landed  at  those  ports,  and  destined  for  Kimberley 
or  Johannesburg,  are  sent  up.  The  passenger  traffic  on 
the  branches  is  small,  as  people  who  want  to  go  from  the 
Eastern  towns  to  Cape  Town  usually  take  the  less 
fatiguing  as  well  as  cheaper  sea  voyage. 

Three  other  lines  of  railway  remain.  One,  opened  in  the 
end  of  1895,  connects  Durban  with  Pretoria  and  Johan- 
nesburg; another,  opened  in  1894,  runs  from  Delagoa 
Bay  to  Pretoria ;  a  third,  opened  part  of  it  in  1894  and  the 
rest  in  1896,  connects  Beira  with  a  place  called  Chimoyo 
in  the  Portuguese  dominions,  and  is  being  now  built 
therefrom  to  MtaU  and  Fort  Salisbury,  in  the  territory  of 
the  British  South  Africa  Company.^ 

Of  these  railways  the  trunk-line  with  its  branches  was 
constructed  by  and  is  (except  the  parts  which  traverse 
the  Orange  Free  State  and  the  Transvaal)  owned  by  the 
government  of  Cape  Colony.  The  Hne  from  Durban  to 
the  Transvaal  border  at  Charlestown  belongs  to  the  Natal 
government.    The  rest  of  this  Une,  from  Charlestown 

1  There  is  also  a  line  of  railway  from  Port  Elizabeth  to  Graaf- 
Reiaet,  some  short  branch  lines  near  Cape  Town,  and  a  small  line 
from  Graham's  Town  to  the  coast  at  Port  Alfred. 


186 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


northward  through  the  Transvaal,  is  the  property  of  a 
Dutch  company,  which  also  owns  the  Une  from  Delagoa 
Bay  to  Pretoria  and  from  Pretoria  to  the  frontier  of  the 
Free  State.  The  Beira  railway  belongs  to  a  company 
controlled  by  the  British  South  Africa  Company,  and  is 
virtually  a  part  of  that  great  undertaking. 

AU  these  railways,  except  the  Beira  Hne,  have  the  same 
gage,  one  of  three  feet  six  inches.  The  Beira  line  has  a 
two-foot  gage,  but  will  probably  be  enlarged  as  the  traffic 
increases.  Throughout  South  Africa  the  lines  of  railway 
are  laid  on  steeper  gradients  than  is  usual  in  Europe :  one 
in  forty  is  not  uncommon,  and  on  the  Natal  line  it  is 
sometimes  one  in  thirty,  though  this  is  being  gradually 
reduced.  Although  the  accommodation  at  the  minor  sta- 
tions is  extremely  simple,  and  sometimes  even  primitive, 
the  railways  are  well  managed,  and  the  cars  arranged  with 
a  view  to  sleep  on  the  night  journeys ;  so  that  one  can 
manage  even  the  long  transit  from  Cape  Town  to  Pretoria 
with  no  great  fatigue.  Considering  how  very  thinly  peo- 
pled the  country  is,  so  that  there  is  practically  no  local 
passenger  and  very  little  local  goods  traffic,  the  railway 
service  is  much  better  than  could  have  been  expected,  and 
does  great  credit  to  the  enterprise  of  the  people. 

Railways  have  made  an  enormous  difference,  not  to  travel 
only,  but  to  trade  and  to  pohtics ;  for  before  the  construc- 
tion of  the  great  trunk-line  (which  was  not  opened  to  Pre- 
toria tm  1892)  the  only  means  of  conveyance  was  the 
ox- wagon.  The  ox- wagon  needs  a  few  words  of  description, 
for  it  is  the  most  characteristic  feature  of  South  African 
travel.  It  is  a  long,  low  structure,  drawn  by  seven,  eight, 
nine,  or  even  ten  yoke  of  oxen,  and  is  surmounted  (when 
intended  to  carry  travelers)  by  a  convex  wooden  frame 
and  canvas  roof.    The  animals  are  harnessed  by  a  strong 


TRAVELING  AND  COMMUNICATIONS  X87 


and  heavy  chain  attached  to  the  yoke  which  holds  each  pair 
together.  The  oxen  usually  accomplish  about  twelve  miles 
a  day,  but  can  be  made  to  do  sixteen,  or  with  pressure  a  little 
more.  They  walk  very  slowly,  and  they  are  allowed  to  rest 
and  feed  more  hours  than  those  during  which  they  travel. 
The  rest-time  is  usually  the  forenoon  and  tiU  about  four 
p.  M.,  with  another  rest  for  part  of  the  night.  It  was  in  these 
wagons  that  the  Boers  carried  with  them  their  wives  and 
children  and  household  goods  in  the  great  exodus  of  1836. 
It  was  in  such  wagons  that  nearly  all  the  explorations  of 
South  Africa  have  been  made,  such  as  those  by  the  mission- 
aries, and  particularly  by  Robert  Moffat  and  by  Livingstone 
(in  his  earlier  journeys),  and  such  as  those  of  the  hunting 
pioneers,  men  like  Anderson,  Gordon-Cummin  g,  and 
Selous.  And  to  this  day  it  is  on  the  wagon  that  whoever 
traverses  any  unfrequented  region  must  rely.  Horses,  and 
even  mules,  soon  break  down ;  and  as  the  traveler  must 
carry  his  food  and  other  necessaries  of  camp  life  with  him, 
he  always  needs  the  wagon  as  a  basis  of  operations,  even 
if  he  has  a  seasoned  horse  which  he  can  use  for  two  or 
three  days  when  speed  is  required.  Wagons  have,  more- 
over, another  value  for  a  large  party :  they  can  be  readily 
formed  into  a  laager,  or  camp,  by  being  drawn  into  a  circle, 
with  the  oxen  placed  inside  and  so  kept  safe  from  the  at- 
tacks of  wild  beasts.  And  where  there  are  hostile  Kafirs 
to  be  feared,  such  a  laager  is  an  efficient  fortress,  from 
within  which  a  few  determined  marksmen  have  often 
successfully  resisted  the  onslaught  of  hordes  of  natives. 
To  this  day  an  immense  trade  is  carried  on  by  means  of 
ox-wagons  between  the  points  where  the  railways  end — 
Maf eking,  Pretoria,  and  Chimoyo— and  the  new  settle- 
ments in  Matabililand  and  Mashonaland.  When  I  passed 
from  Mafeking  to  Bidawayo  in  October,  1895,  thousands 


188  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


of  oxen  were  drawing  hundreds  of  wagons  along  the  track 
between  those  towns.  When,  a  month  later,  I  traveled 
fi'om  Fort  Salisbury  to  Chimoyo,  I  passed  countless 
wagons  standing  idle  along  the  track,  because,  owing  to 
the  locusts  and  the  drought,  which  had  destroyed  most  of 
the  grass,  the  oxen  had  either  died  or  grown  too  lean  and 
feeble  to  be  able  to  drag  the  loads.  Hence  the  cattle-plague 
which  in  1896  carried  off  the  larger  part  of  the  transport- 
oxen  has  been  a  terrible  misfortune,  not  only  to  the  natives 
who  owned  these  animals,  but  also  to  the  whole  northern 
region,  which  depends  upon  cattle  transport  for  its  food, 
its  comforts,  its  building  materials,  and  its  mine  machinery. 

It  is  the  character  of  the  country  that  has  permitted  the 
wagon  to  become  so  important  a  factor  in  South  African 
exploration,  politics,  and  commerce.  The  interior,  though 
high,  is  not  generally  rugged.  Much  of  it— indeed,  all  the 
eastern  and  northern  parts— is  a  vast  rolling  plain,  across 
which  wheeled  vehicles  can  pass  with  no  greater  dijBficulty 
than  the  beds  of  the  streams,  sometimes  deeply  cut  through 
soft  ground,  present.  The  ranges  of  hills  which  occur  here 
and  there  are  generally  traversed  by  passes,  which,  though 
stony,  are  not  steep  enough  to  be  impracticable.  Over  most 
of  the  southern  half  of  the  plateau  there  is  no  wood,  and 
where  forests  occur  the  trees  seldom  grow  thick  together, 
and  the  brushwood  is  so  dry  and  small  that  it  can  soon 
be  cut  away  to  make  a  passage.  Had  South  Africa  been 
thickly  wooded,  Hke  the  eastern  parts  of  North  America  or 
some  parts  of  Australia,  wagon- traveling  would  have  been 
difficult  or  impossible ;  but  most  of  it  is,  like  the  country 
between  the  Missouri  River  and  the  Great  Salt  Lake,  a  dry, 
open  coimtry,  where  the  wagon  can  be  made  a  true  ship  of 
the  desert.  This  explains  the  fact,  so  surprising  to  most 
European  readers  of  African  travel  and  adventure,  that 


TRAVELING  AND  COMMUNICATIONS  189 


wherever  man  can  walk  or  ride  he  can  take  his  moving 
home  with  him. 

For  rapid  transit,  however,  the  traveler  who  has  passed 
beyond  the  railway  is  now  not  wholly  dependent  on  the 
ox.  Coaches,  drawn  sometimes  by  mules,  sometimes  by 
horses,  run  from  many  points  on  the  railways  to  outlying 
settlements ;  they  are,  however,  always  uncomfortable  and 
not  always  safe.  They  travel  night  and  day,  usually  ac- 
compHshing  from  six  to  eight  miles  an  hour  on  good 
ground,  but  much  less  where  the  surface  is  sandy  or 
rugged.  Coach  services  are  maintained  from  Mafeking 
(and  also  from  Pretoria)  to  Bulawayo,  and  cover  the  dis- 
tance (five  hundred  miles)  in  five  and  a  half  days  and  five 
nights.  They  are  drawn  by  mules,  which  are  changed 
every  eight  or  ten  miles.  Considering  the  difficulties  of  the 
route  and  the  heavy  mortaUty  among  the  animals,  this 
service  does  the  utmost  credit  to  the  enterprising  Transvaal 
Dutchman  (Mr.  Zeederberg)  who  directs  it.  In  the  north 
and  northeast  of  Cape  Colony  and  in  the  Orange  Free 
State,  as  well  as  in  MatabUiland,  horses  are  very  little  used 
either  for  riding  or  for  driving,  owing  to  the  prevalence 
of  a  disease  called  horse-sickness,  which  attacks  nearly 
every  animal  and  from  which  only  about  a  quarter  re- 
cover. This  is  one  reason  why  so  little  exploration  has 
been  done  on  horseback ;  and  it  is  a  point  to  be  noted  by 
those  who  desire  to  travel  in  the  country,  and  who  naturally 
think  of  the  mode  by  which  people  used  to  make  journeys 
in  Europe,  and  by  which  they  make  journeys  still  in  large 
parts  of  South  and  of  North  America,  as  well  as  in  western 
Asia. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  "tracks"  used  by  wagons  and 
coaches ;  the  reader  must  not  suppose  that  these  tracks  are 
roads.    There  are  no  made  roads  in  South  Africa,  except 


190 


IMPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


in  the  neighborhood  of  Cape  Town,  Durban,  Maritzburg, 
Graham's  Town,  and  one  or  two  other  towns.  Neither  are 
there  (except  as  aforesaid)  any  bridges,  save  here  and  there 
rude  ones  of  logs  thrown  across  a  stream  bed.  Elsewhere 
the  track  is  merely  a  Hne  across  the  veldt  (prairie),  marked 
and  sometimes  cut  deep  by  the  wheels  of  many  wagons, 
where  all  that  man  has  done  has  been  to  remove  the  trees 
or  bushes.  Here  and  there  the  edges  of  the  steep  stream 
banks  have  been  cut  down  so  as  to  allow  a  vehicle  to  de- 
scend more  easily  to  the  bottom,  where  during  the  rains  the 
stream  flows,  and  during  the  rest  of  the  year  the  ground 
is  sandy  or  muddy.  After  heavy  rain  a  stream  is  some- 
times impassable  for  days  together,  and  the  wagons  have 
to  wait  on  the  bank  till  the  torrent  subsides.  At  all  times 
these  water  channels  are  troublesome,  for  the  oxen  or 
mules  are  apt  to  jib  or  get  out  of  hand  iu  descending  the 
steep  slope,  and  it  is  no  easy  matter  to  get  them  iirged  up 
the  steep  slope  on  the  other  side.  Accidents  often  occur, 
and  altogether  it  may  be  said  that  the  dongas— this  is  the 
name  given  to  these  hollow  stream  channels — form  the 
most  exciting  featiu*e  of  South  African  travel  (in  places 
where  wild  beasts  and  natives  are  no  longer  dangerous) 
and  afford  the  greatest  scope  for  the  skill  of  the  South 
African  driver. 

Skilful  he  must  be,  for  he  never  drives  less  than  six 
span  of  oxen,  and  seldom  less  than  three  pairs  of  horses 
or  mules  (the  Bulawayo  coach  has  five  pairs).  It  takes 
two  men  to  di-ive.  One  wields  an  immensely  long  whip, 
whUe  the  other  holds  the  reins.  Both  incessantly  apostro- 
phize the  animals.  It  is  chiefly  with  the  whip  that  the  team 
is  driven ;  but  if  the  team  is  one  of  mules,  one  of  the  two 
drivers  is  for  a  large  part  of  the  time  on  his  feet,  running 
alongside  the  beasts,  beating  them  with  a  short  whip  and 


TRAVELING  AND  COMMUNICATIONS  191 

shouting  to  them  by  their  names,  with  such  adjectives, 
expletives,  and  other  objurgations  as  he  can  command. 
Many  Dutchmen  do  drive  wonderfully  weU. 

I  have  said  nothing  of  internal  water  travel  by  river  or 
lake,  because  none  exists.  There  are  no  lakes,  and  there 
is  not  a  river  with  water  enough  to  float  the  smallest 
steamboat,  except  some  reaches  of  the  Limpopo  River  in 
the  wet  season.  The  only  steamer  that  plies  anywhere  on 
a  river  is  that  which  ascends  the  Pungwe  River  from  Beira 
to  Fontesvilla ;  it  goes  onlj  as  far  as  the  tide  goes,  and  on 
most  of  its  trips  spends  fully  half  its  time  sticking  on 
the  sand-banks  with  which  the  Pungwe  abounds.  So  far 
as  I  know,  no  one  has  ever  proposed  to  make  a  canal  in 
any  part  of  the  country. 

From  what  has  been  said  it  will  be  gathered  that  there 
is  no  country  where  railways  are  and  wiU  be  more  needed 
than  South  Africa.  Unfortunately,  they  wUl  for  a  great 
whUe  have  no  local  traffic,  because  most  of  the  country 
they  pass  through  has  not  one  white  inhabitant  to  the 
square  mile.  Their  function  is  to  connect  the  coast  with 
the  distant  mining  centers,  in  which  population  has  begun 
to  grow.  To  lay  them  is,  however,  comparatively  cheap 
work.  Except  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  a  town, 
nothing  has  to  be  paid  for  the  land.  The  gradients  all 
through  the  interior  plateau  are  comparatively  easy,  and 
the  engineers  have  in  Africa  cared  less  for  making 
their  ascents  gentle  than  we  do  in  older  countries.  Even 
in  the  hUly  parts  of  the  Transvaal  and  MatabiWand  the 
ranges  are  not  high  or  steep,  and  one  can  turn  a  kopje 
instead  of  cutting  or  tunneling  through  it.  Few  bridges 
are  needed,  because  there  are  few  rivers.  Accordingly,  one 
is  scarcely  surprised  to  hear  that  the  British  South  Africa 
Company  expect  to  complete  their  new  line  from  Maf eking 


192 


IMPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


to  Bulawayo,  a  distance  of  fully  six  hundred  miles,  in  less 
than  two  years  from  the  time  they  set  to  work  at  it 
(March,  1896),  and  that  their  other  line,  from  Chimoyo  to 
Fort  Salisbury,  a  shorter  one,  but  through  a  much  more 
hilly  and  difficult  country,  is  to  be  finished  and  open  for 
traffic  in  about  two  years  from  the  time  when  it  was  begun. 
Railways  are  the  chief  need  of  these  newest  countries, 
and  the  best  means,  next  to  a  wise  and  concLliatory 
administration,  of  preventing  fresh  native  outbreaks. 

A  word  as  to  another  point  on  which  any  one  planning 
a  tour  to  South  Africa  may  be  curious— the  accommodation 
obtainable.  Most  travelers  have  given  the  inns  a  bad  name. 
My  own  experience  is  scanty,  for  we  were  so  often  the  re- 
cipient of  private  hospitality  as  to  have  occasion  to  sleep  in 
an  inn  (apart  from  the  "stores"  of  Bechuanaland  and 
Mashonaland,  of  which  more  hereafter)  in  four  places  only, 
MafeMng,  Ladybrand,  Durban,  and  Bloemfonteia.  But 
it  seemed  to  us  that,  considering  the  newness  of  the  coun- 
try, and  the  diflfieidty  in  many  places  of  furnishing  a  house 
well  and  of  securing  provisions,  the  entertainment  was 
quite  tolerable,  sometimes  much  better  than  one  had  ex- 
pected. In  the  two  colonies,  and  the  chief  places  of  the 
two  republics,  clean  beds  and  enough  to  eat  can  always 
be  had ;  m  the  largest  places  there  is  nothing  to  complain 
of,  though  the  prices  are  sometimes  high.  Luxuries  are 
unprocurable,  but  no  sensible  man  will  go  to  a  new 
country  expecting  luxuries. 


CHAPTER  XIV 


FROM  CAPE  TOWN  TO  BULAWAYO 

IN  this  and  the  three  following  chapters  I  propose  to 
give  some  account  of  the  country  through  which  the 
traveler  passes  on  his  way  from  the  coast  to  the  points 
which  are  the  natural  goals  of  a  South  African  journey, 
Kimberley  and  Johannesburg,  Bulawayo  and  Fort  Salis- 
bury, hoping  thereby  to  convey  a  more  lively  impression 
of  the  aspects  of  the  land  and  its  inhabitants  than  general 
descriptions  can  give,  and  incidentally  to  find  opportu- 
nities for  touching  upon  some  of  the  questions  on  which 
the  future  of  the  country  wUl  turn. 

First,  a  few  words  about  the  voyage.  You  can  go  to 
South  Africa  either  by  one  of  the  two  great  English  lines 
across  the  Atlantic  to  the  ports  of  Cape  Colony  and  Natal, 
or  by  the  German  Kne  through  the  Red  Sea  and  along  the 
East  African  coast  to  Beira  or  Delagoa  Bay.  The  steamers 
of  the  German  line  take  thirty  days  from  Port  Said  to  Beira, 
and  two  days  more  to  Delagoa  Bay.  They  are  good  boats, 
though  much  smaller  than  those  of  the  English  lines  to 
the  Cape,  and  the  voyage  from  Port  Said  has  the  advan- 
tage of  being,  at  most  times  of  the  year,  a  smooth  one 
pretty  nearly  the  whole  way.  They  touch  at  Aden,  Zan- 
zibar, Dar-es-Salaam,  and  Quilimane,  and  give  an  oppor- 

13  193 


194  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


tunity  of  seeing  these  places.  But  all  along  the  East 
African  coast  the  heat  is  excessive— a  damp,  depressing 
heat.  And  the  whole  time  required  to  reach  Beira  and 
England,  even  if  one  travels  by  rail  from  Calais  to  Mar- 
seilles, Brindisi,  or  Naples,  and  takes  a  British  steamer 
thence  to  Port  Said,  joining  the  German  boat  at  the  latter 
port,  is  more  than  five  weeks.  Nearly  everybody,  there- 
fore, chooses  the  Atlantic  route  from  Southampton  to 
the  Cape.  The  Atlantic  voyage,  which  lasts  from  sixteen 
to  twenty  days,  is,  on  the  whole,  a  pleasant  and  health- 
ful one.  The  steamers,  both  those  of  the  Castle  Line 
and  those  of  the  Union  Line,  are  comfortable  and  well 
appointed,  and  I  cannot  imagine  any  navigation  more 
scrupulously  careful  than  that  which  I  saw  on  board  the 
Castle  liner  by  which  I  went  out  and  returned.  During 
the  winter  and  spring  months  there  is  often  pretty  rough 
weather  from  England  as  far  as  Madeira.  But  from  that 
island  onward,  or  at  any  rate  from  the  Canaries  onward, 
one  has  usually  a  fairly  smooth  sea  with  moderate  breezes 
tin  within  two  or  three  days  of  Cape  Town,  when  head 
winds  are  frequently  encountered.  Nor  is  the  heat  ex- 
cessive. Except  during  the  two  days  between  Cape  Verde 
and  the  equator,  it  is  never  more  than  what  one  can  en- 
joy during  the  day  and  tolerate  during  the  night.  One 
sees  land  only  at  Madeira,  where  the  steamer  coals  for  a  few 
hours ;  at  the  picturesque  Canary  Islands,  between  which 
she  passes,  gaining,  if  the  weather  be  clear,  a  superb  xievf 
of  the  magnificent  Peak  of  Tenerif  e ;  and  at  Cape  Verde, 
where  she  runs  (in  the  daytime)  within  a  few  miles  of  the 
African  coast.  Those  who  enjoy  the  colors  of  the  sea  and 
of  the  sea  skies,  and  to  whom  the  absence  of  letters,  tele- 
grams, and  newspapers  is  welcome,  will  find  few  more 
agreeable  ways  of  passing  a  fortnight.  After  Cape  Finis- 


FROM  CAPE  TOWN  TO  BULAWAYO 


195 


tierra  very  few  vessels  are  seen.  After  Madeira  every 
night  reveals  new  stars  rising  from  the  ocean  as  our  own 
begin  to  vanish. 

E  giS,  le  nuove  stelle  dell'  altro  polo 
Vedea  la  notte,  e  il  nostro  tanto  basso 
Che  non  sorgeva  fuorl  del  marin  suolo,i 

as  Ulysses  says,  in  Dante's  poem,  of  his  voyage  to  the 
southern  hemisphere.  The  pleasure  of  watching  xinfamil- 
iar  constellations  rise  from  the  east  and  sweep  across  the 
sky  is  a  keen  one,  which  often  kept  us  late  from  sleep. 

For  a  few  hours  only  before  reaching  Cape  Town  does 
one  discern  on  the  eastern  horizon  the  stern  gray  moun- 
tains that  rise  along  the  barren  coast.  A  nobler  site  for 
a  city  and  a  naval  stronghold  than  that  of  the  capital  of 
South  Africa  can  hardly  be  imagined.  It  rivals  Gibraltar 
and  Constantinople,  Bombay  and  San  Francisco.  Imme- 
diately behind  the  town,  which  lies  along  the  sea,  the  ma- 
jestic mass  of  Table  Mountain  rises  to  a  height  of  3600 
feet,  a  steep  and  partly  wooded  slope  capped  by  a  long 
line  of  sheer  sandstone  precipices  more  than  1000  feet 
high,  and  flanked  to  right  and  left  by  bold,  isolated  peaks. 
The  beautiful  sweep  of  the  bay  in  front,  the  towering  crags 
behind,  and  the  romantic  pinnacles  which  rise  on  either 
side,  make  a  landscape  that  no  one  who  has  seen  it  can 
forget.  The  town  itself  is  disappointing.  It  has  pre- 
served very  little  of  its  old  Dutch  character.  The  minia- 
ture canals  which  once  traversed  it  are  gone.  The  streets, 
except  two,  are  rather  narrow,  and  bordered  by  low  houses ; 
nor  is  there  miich  to  admire  in  the  buildings,  except  the 
handsome  Parliament  House,  the  new  post-office,  and  the 

1  "  And  already  night  saw  the  new  stars  of  the  other  pole,  and 
ours  brought  so  low  that  it  rose  not  from  the  surface  of  the  sea." 


196 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


offices  of  the  Standard  Bank.  The  immediate  suburbs, 
inhabited  chiefly  by  Malays  and  other  colored  people,  are 
mean.  But  the  neighborhood  is  extremely  attractive.  To 
the  northwest  Table  Mountain  and  its  spurs  descend 
steeply  to  the  sea,  and  the  road  which  runs  along  the  beach 
past  the  \Tllage  of  Sea  Point  offers  a  long  series  of  striking 
views  of  shore  and  crag.  It  is  on  the  east,  however,  that 
the  most  beautiful  spots  lie.  Five  mUes  from  Cape  Town, 
and  connected  with  it  by  railway,  the  \allage  of  Ronde- 
bosch  nestles  under  the  angle  of  Table  Mountain,  and  a 
mile  farther  along  the  liue  is  the  little  town  of  Wjoiberg. 
Round  these  places,  or  between  them  and  Cape  Town, 
nearly  all  the  richer,  and  a  great  many  even  of  the  poorer, 
white  people  of  Cape  Town  live.  The  roads  are  bordered 
by  pretty  villas,  whose  grounds,  concealed  by  no  walls, 
are  filled  with  magnohas  and  other  flowering  trees  and 
shrubs.  Avenues  of  taU  pines  or  of  superb  oaks,  planted 
by  the  Dutch  in  the  last  century,  run  here  and  there  along 
the  by-roads.  Immediately  above,  the  gray  precipices  of 
Table  Mountain  tower  into  the  air,  while  in  the  opposite 
direction  a  break  in  the  woods  shows  in  the  far  distance 
the  sharp  summits,  snow-tipped  during  the  winter  months, 
of  the  lofty  range  of  the  Hottentots  Holland  Mountains. 
It  would  be  hard  to  find  am'Tvhere,  even  in  Italy  or  the 
Pyrenees,  more  exquisite  combinations  of  soft  and  cul- 
tivated landscape  with  grand  mountain  forms  than  this 
part  of  the  Cape  peninsula  presents.  Perhaps  the  most 
charming  nook  of  all  is  where  the  quaint  old  Dutch  farm- 
house of  Groot  Constantia  stands  among  its  vineyards, 
about  ten  miles  from  Cape  Town.  Behind  it  is  the  range 
wliich  connects  the  hiUs  of  Simon's  Bay  with  Table 
Mountain ;  its  decli\'ities  are  at  this  point  covered  with 
the  graceful  silver-tree,  whose  glistening  foliage  shines 


FROM  CAPE  TOWN  TO  BULAWAYO  197 


brighter  than  that  of  the  European  olive.  Beneath  the 
farm-house  are  the  vineyards  which  produce  the  famous 
sweet  wine  that  bears  the  name  of  Constantia,  sloping 
gently  toward  the  waters  of  False  Bay,  whose  farther 
side  is  guarded  by  a  wall  of  frowning  peaks,  while  the 
deep-blue,  misty  ocean  opens  in  the  distance.  It  is  a 
landscape  unlike  anything  one  can  see  in  Europe,  and 
though  the  light  in  sea  and  sky  is  brilliant,  the  brilliance 
is  on  this  coast  soft  and  mellow,  unlike  the  clear,  sharp 
radiance  of  the  arid  interior. 

No  one  who  cares  for  natural  scenery  quits  Cape  Town 
without  ascending  Table  Mountain,  whose  summit  affords 
not  only  a  very  beautiful  and  extensive  prospect  over  the 
surrounding  country,  but  a  very  striking  ocean  view.  Look- 
ing down  the  narrow  gullies  that  descend  from  the  top, 
one  sees  the  intensely  blue  sea  closing  them  below,  framed 
between  their  jutting  crags,  while  on  the  other  side  the  busy 
streets  and  wharves  of  Cape  Town  lie  directly  under  the  eye, 
and  one  can  discover  the  vehicles  in  the  streets  and  the 
trees  in  the  Governor's  garden.  The  heaths  and  other 
flowers  and  shrubs  that  grow  profusely  over  the  wide  top, 
which  is  not  flat,  as  he  who  looks  at  it  from  the  sea  fancies, 
but  cut  up  by  glens,  with  here  and  there  lake  reservoirs 
in  the  hollows,  are  very  lovely,  and  give  a  novel  and 
peculiar  charm  to  this  ascent.  Nor  is  the  excursion  to 
Cape  Point,  the  real  Cape  of  Storms  of  Bartholomeu 
Diaz,  and  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  of  Vasco  da  Gama,  less 
beautiful.  An  hour  in  the  railway  brings  one  to  Simon's 
Bay,  the  station  of  the  British  naval  squadron,  a  small 
but  fairly  well-sheltered  inlet  under  high  hills.  From 
this  one  drives  for  four  hours  over  a  very  rough  track 
through  a  lonely  and  silent  country,  sometimes  sandy, 
sometimes  thick  with  brushwood,  but  everywhere  decked 

13* 


198  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


with  briUiant  flowers,  to  the  Cape,  a  magnificent  headland 
rising  almost  vertically  from  the  ocean  to  a  height  of  800 
feet.  Long,  heavy  surges  are  always  foaming  on  the  rocks 
below,  and  nowhere,  even  on  this  troubled  coast,  where 
the  hot  Mozambique  current  meets  a  stream  of  cold 
Antarctic  water,  do  gales  more  often  howl  and  shriek 
than  round  these  rocky  pinnacles.  One  can  well  under- 
stand the  terror  with  which  the  Portuguese  sailors  five 
centuries  ago  used  to  see  the  grim  headland  loom  up 
through  the  clouds  driven  by  the  strong  southeasters, 
that  kept  them  struggling  for  days  or  weeks  to  round  the 
cape  that  marked  their  way  to  India.  But  Sir  Francis 
Drake,  who  passed  it  coming  home  westward  from  his 
ever-famous  voyage  rovmd  the  world,  had  a  more  auspi- 
cious experience :  "  "We  ran  hard  aboard  the  Cape,  finding 
the  report  of  the  Portuguese  to  be  most  false,  who  affirm 
that  it  is  the  most  dangerous  cape  of  the  world,  never 
without  intolerable  storms  and  present  danger  to  travel- 
ers who  come  near  the  same.  This  cape  is  a  most  stately 
thing,  and  the  finest  cape  we  saw  in  the  whole  circum- 
ference of  the  earth." 

A  third  excursion,  which  well  repays  the  traveler,  is  to 
the  quaint  little  town  of  Stellenbosch,  founded  by  Adrian 
van  der  Stel  (Governor  of  the  Colony)  in  1680,  and  called 
after  himself  and  his  wife,  whose  name  was  Bosch.  It 
is  built  in  genuine  Dutch  style,  with  straight  streets  of 
two-storied  white  houses,  the  windows  nearly  flush  with 
the  walls,  as  in  Holland,  the  woodwoi-k  and  the  green  shut- 
ters those  of  Holland,  and  long  lines  of  dark-green  oaks 
shading  the  foot- walks  on  each  side  the  street.  Soft,  rich 
pastures  all  round— for  there  is  plenty  of  water  brought 
down  from  the  hills— complete  the  resemblance  to  a  Hob- 
bema  landscape;  and  it  is  only  when  one  looks  up  and 


FROM  CAPE  TOWN  TO  BULAWAYO  199 

sees  rocky  mountains  soaring  behind  into  the  sky  that 
the  illusion  is  broken.  It  is  here,  and  in  the  town  of 
Swellendam,  farther  east,  and  in  some  of  the  villages  that 
lie  northward  of  Stellenbosch  in  the  western  province, 
that  the  Dutch  element  has  remained  strongest  and  has 
best  retained  its  ancient  ways  and  customs. 

We  have,  however,  delayed  long  enough  round  the  capi- 
tal, and  it  is  time  to  plunge  into  the  interior  by  the  rail- 
way. Sixty  mUes  to  the  north  of  Cape  Town,  the  great 
trunk-line,  which  has  threaded  its  way  through  the  valleys 
of  an  outlying  range  of  mountains,  reaches  the  foot  of  the 
great  inner  table-land  at  a  place  called  Hex  River,  and  in 
an  hour  climbs  by  zigzags  up  an  incline  which  is  in  some 
places  as  steep  as  one  in  thirty-five,  mounting  1600  feet 
into  a  desert  land.  Rugged  brown  mountains,  sometimes 
craggy,  sometimes  covered  with  masses  of  loose  stone, 
rise  above  the  lower  ground,  now  a  valley,  now  an  open 
plain,  through  which  the  railway  takes  its  eastward  way. 
The  bushes,  which  had  been  tall  and  covered  with  blos- 
soms on  the  ascent,  are  now  stunted,  bearing  small  and  usu- 
ally withered  flowers.  Hardly  an  herb,  and  not  a  blade 
of  grass,  is  to  be  seen  on  the  ground,  which  is  sometimes 
of  clay,  baked  hard  by  the  sun,  sometimes  of  sand,  with- 
out a  drop  of  water  anywhere.  Yet  water  flows  when, 
now  and  then  in  the  summer,  a  storm  breaks,  or  a  few 
showers  come ;  and  then  nature  revives,  and  for  a  week 
or  two  flowers  spring  from  the  soil  and  a  fresher  green 
comes  upon  the  bushes.  In  a  landscape  so  arid  one  hears 
with  surprise  that  the  land  is  worth  ten  shillings  an  acre, 
for  one  or  two  of  the  smallest  shrubs  give  feed  for  sheep, 
and  there  are  wells  scattered  about  sufficient  for  the  flocks. 
The  farms  are  large,  usually  of  at  least  six  thousand  acres, 
so  one  seldom  sees  a  farm-house.   The  farmers  are  all 


200  mPEESSIONS  OP  SOUTH  APRICA 


of  Boer  stock.  They  lead  a  lonely  life  in  a  silent  and 
melaneh.oly  nature,  but  theii-  habitual  gravity  has  not 
made  them  unsocial,  for  they  are  fond  of  riding  or  driv- 
ing in  their  wagons  to  visit  one  another  on  all  occasions 
of  festivity  or  mourning.  Every  ten  or  fifteen  nules  there 
is  a  station,  and  here  the  British  element  in  the  popula- 
tion appears,  chiefly  occupied  in  storekeeping.  At  Mat- 
jesfontein  an  enterprising  Scotchman  has  built  an  hotel 
and  a  number  of  small  \Tllas  to  serve  as  a  health  resort ; 
has  dug  wells,  and  planted  Australian  gums  for  shade, 
making  a  little  oasis  in  the  desert.  Farther  east  the  \al- 
lage  of  Beaufort  "West,  the  only  place  along  the  Hne  that 
aspires  to  be  called  a  town,  boasts  a  chui'ch  with  a  spire, 
and  has  one  or  two  streets,  though  most  of  its  houses 
are  stuck  down  irregularly  over  a  surface  covered  with 
broken  bottles  and  empty  sardine  and  preserved-meat  tins. 
Here,  too,  there  is  a  large,  shallow  pond  of  water,  and 
here  people  with  weak  lungs  come  to  breathe  the  keen, 
dry,  invigorating  air.  Of  its  efl&cacy  there  is  no  doubt, 
but  one  would  think  that  the  want  of  society  and  of 
variety  would  be  almost  as  depressing  as  the  air  is  stimu- 
lating. The  prospects  have  a  certain  beauty,  for  beyond 
the  wide,  bare,  gray  plain  to  the  south  sharp  mountains 
stand  up,  which  take  at  sunrise  and  sunset  delightful  tints 
of  blue  and  purple,  and  the  sense  of  a  vast  expanse  on 
earth  beneath  and  in  heaven  above  has  something  strange 
and  solemn.  But  the  monotony  of  perpetual  sunlight 
upon  a  landscape  which  has  no  foregrounds  and  never 
changes,  save  in  color,  must  be  trjnng  to  those  who  have 
no  occupation  except  that  of  getting  well. 

This  Karroo  scenerj^  continues,  with  little  variation, 
for  hundreds  of  miles.  To  the  north  of  the  railway, 
which  runs  mostly  from  west  to  east,  the  aspect  of  the 


FROM  CAPE  TOWN  TO  BULAWAYO  201 


country  is  mucli  the  same,  dry,  stony,  and  forbidding, 
for  full  three  hundred  miles  to  the  Orange  River,  and 
beyond  that  into  Namaqualand.  Except  for  the  few 
houses  at  some  of  the  stations,  it  seems  a  wilderness ;  yet 
here  and  there  stand  tiny  villages,  connected  by  lines  of 
coach  with  the  railway,  whither  the  neighboring  farmers 
come  to  supply  theii-  household  needs.  But  as  the  train 
moves  farther  and  farther  eastward  the  features  of  nature 
grow  less  austere.  The  mountains  by  degrees  recede 
or  sink ;  the  country  becomes  more  of  a  great  open  plain, 
though  with  isolated  hills  visible  here  and  there  over  its 
expanse.  It  is  also  slightly  greener,  and  after  the  rains 
some  little  grass  springs  up,  besides  the  low,  succulent 
shrub  which  the  sheep  eat.  At  De  Aar  Junction,  five 
hundred  miles  from  Cape  Town,  the  line  to  Bloemfontein 
and  the  Transvaal  branches  off  to  the  right.  We  follow 
the  western  branch  over  a  vast  rolling  plain  to  the  Orange 
River,  here  a  perennial  stream,  and  at  six  hundred  and 
forty-six  miles  from  Cape  Town  find  ourselves  once 
more  in  the  haunts  of  men  at  Kimberley. 

Kimberley,  the  city  of  diamonds,  has  had  a  curious  his- 
tory. In  1869-70  the  precious  crystals,  first  found  in  1867 
near  the  Orange  River,  were  discovered  here  in  considerable 
quantity.  A  sudden  rush  of  adventurers  from  all  parts  of 
South  Africa,  as  well  as  from  Europe,  gave  it  in  three  or 
four  years  a  population  of  many  thousands.  The  mining 
claims  were  then  and  for  some  years  afterward  in  the 
hands  of  a  large  number  of  persons  and  companies  who 
had  opened  them  or  purchased  them.  The  competition 
of  these  independent  mine-workers  was  bringing  down  the 
price  of  the  stones,  and  the  waste  or  leakage  arising  from 
the  theft  of  stones  by  the  native  work-people,  who  sold 
them  to  European  I.  D.  B.  (illicit  diamond-buyers),  seri- 


202 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


ously  reduced  the  profits  of  mining.  It  was  soon  seen 
that  the  consolidation  of  the  various  concerns  would 
effect  enormous  savings  and  form  the  only  means  of  keep- 
ing up  the  price  of  diamonds.  The  process  of  amalga- 
mating the  claims  and  interests  and  merging  them  in 
one  great  corporation  was  completed  in  1885,  chiefly 
by  the  skill  and  boldness  of  Mr.  Cecil  J.  Rhodes,  who 
had  gone  to  Natal  for  his  health  shortly  before  1870, 
and  came  up  to  Kimberley  in  the  first  months  of  the  rush. 
Since  the  amalgamation  the  great  corporation,  called  the 
De  Beers  Consolidated  Mining  Company,  has  reduced  the 
output  of  diamonds  to  just  such  an  annual  amount  as  ex- 
perience has  proved  that  Europe  and  America — the  United 
States  is  the  chief  market— are  able  to  take  at  a  price 
high  enough  to  leave  a  large  profit.  By  this  means  the  price 
has  been  well  maintained.  This  poUcy,  however,  has  inci- 
dentally reduced  the  population  of  Kimberley.  One  great 
corporation,  with  its  comparatively  small  staff  of  em- 
ployees, has  taken  the  place  of  the  crowd  of  independent 
adventui'ers  of  the  old  days,  and  some  of  the  mines  have 
been  closed  because  the  rest  are  sufficient  to  produce  as 
many  diamonds  as  it  is  deemed  prudent  to  put  upon  the 
market.  Thus  there  are  now  only  about  10,000  people 
in  the  to^vTi,  and  some  of  the  poorer  quarters  are  almost 
deserted,  the  stores  and  taverns,  as  weU  as  the  shanty 
dwellings,  empty  and  faUing  to  pieces.  In  the  better 
quarters,  however,  the  old  roughness  has  been  replaced 
by  order  and  comfort.  Many  of  the  best  villas  are  em- 
bowered in  gi'oves  of  tall  Australian  gum-trees,  while  the 
streets  and  roads  are  bordered  either  by  gum-trees  or  by 
hedges  of  prickly-pear  or  agave.  The  streets  are  wide, 
and  most  of  the  houses  are  detached  and  of  one  storj^, 
built  like  Indian  bungalows ;  so  the  town  covers  an  area 


FROM  CAPE  TOWN  TO  BULAWAYO  203 


quite  disproportionate  to  its  population,  and  gives  the 
impression  of  an  extensive  city.  For  the  residence  of 
the  Europeans  employed  in  the  two  great  mines  which 
the  Company  works,  a  suburb  called  Kenilworth  has  been 
bmlt  by  Mr.  Rhodes,  where  neat  houses  of  four,  five,  or 
six  rooms  each  stand  in  handsome  avenues  planted  with 
Australian  trees,  the  so-caUed  "beefwood"  and  the  red 
gum.  They  are  not  beautiful  trees,  but  they  have  the 
merit  of  growing  very  fast,  and  any  shade  is  welcome. 

The  diamonds  are  found  in  beds  of  clay,  of  which  there 
are  two :  a  yeUow  and  softish  clay,  lying  on  or  near  the 
surface,  and  a  hard  blue  clay,  lying  deeper.  These  claj'S, 
which  are  usually  covered  by  a  thin  layer  of  calcareous 
rock,  are  supposed  to  be  the  remains  of  mud-pits  due  to 
volcanic  action,  such  as  the  so-caUed  mud-volcanoes  of 
Iceland,  near  Namaskard,  on  the  banks  of  Lake  Myvatn, 
or  such  as  the  similar  boiling  mud-pits  of  the  Yellowstone 
Park  country,  called  from  their  brilliant  colors  the  "  Paints 
pots."  It  is,  at  any  rate,  from  circular  clay  basins  inclosed 
within  a  harder  rock  (basalt,  black  shale,  and  quartzite) 
that  the  stones  are  obtained.  Some  of  the  mines  are 
worked  even  to  a  depth  of  1200  feet  by  shafts  and  sub- 
terranean galleries.  Some  are  open,  and  these,  particularly 
that  called  the  Wesselton  Mine,  are  an  interesting  sight. 
This  deep  hoUow,  one  third  of  a  mile  in  circumference 
and  100  feet  deep,  inclosed  by  a  strong  fence  of  barbed 
wire,  is  filled  by  a  swarm  of  active  Kafir  workmen,  cleav- 
ing the  "  hard  blue  "  with  pickaxes,  piling  it  up  on  barrows, 
and  carrying  it  off  to  the  wide  fields,  where  it  is  left  ex- 
posed to  the  sun  and,  during  three  months,  to  the  rain. 
Having  been  thus  subjected  to  a  natural  decomposition, 
it  is  the  more  readily  brought  by  the  pickax  into  smaller 
fragments  before  being  sent  to  the  miUs,  where  it  is 


204 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


crushed,  pulverized,  and  finally  washed  to  get  at  the 
stones.  Nowhere  in  the  world  does  the  hidden  wealth 
of  the  soil  and  the  element  of  chance  in  its  discovery- 
strike  one  so  forcibly  as  here,  where  you  are  shown  a 
piece  of  ground  a  few  acres  iu  extent,  and  are  told,  "Out 
of  this  pit  diamonds  of  the  value  of  twelve  mUlion 
pounds  sterling  [more  than  sixty  million  doUars]  have 
been  taken.  Twenty-six  years  ago  the  ground  might  have 
been  bought  for  fifty  pounds." 

The  most  striking  sight  at  Kimberley,  and  one  unique 
in  the  world,  is  furnished  by  the  two  so-caUed  "com- 
pounds "  in  which  the  natives  who  work  in  the  mines  are 
housed  and  confined.  They  are  huge  inclosures,  unroofed, 
but  covered  with  a  wire  netting  to  prevent  anything  from 
being  thrown  out  of  them  over  the  walls,  and  with  a  sub- 
terranean entrance  to  the  adjoining  mine.  The  mine  is 
worked  on  the  system  of  three  eight-hour  shifts,  so  that 
the  workman  is  never  more  than  eight  hom-s  together 
underground.  Round  the  interior  of  the  wall  there  are 
built  sheds  or  huts,  in  which  the  natives  live  and  sleep 
when  not  working.  A  hospital  is  also  pro\'ided  within 
the  inclosure,  as  well  as  a  school  where  the  work-people 
can  spend  then*  leisure  in  learning  to  read  and  write.  No 
spirits  are  sold— an  example  of  removing  temptation  from 
the  native  which  it  is  to  be  wished  that  the  legislature  of 
Cape  Colony  would  foUow.  Every  entrance  is  strictly 
guarded,  and  no  \dsitors,  white  or  native,  are  permitted, 
aU  supplies  being  obtained  from  the  store  within,  kept  by 
the  Company.  The  De  Beers  mine  compound  contained 
at  the  time  of  my  visit  2600  natives,  belonging  to  a  great 
variety  of  tribes,  so  that  here  one  could  see  specimens 
of  the  different  native  types,  from  Natal  and  Pondoland 
on  the  south,  to  the  shores  of  Lake  Tanganyika  in  the 


FEOM  CAPE  TOWN  TO  BULAWAYO  205 


far  north.  They  come  from  every  quarter,  attracted  by 
the  high  wages,  usually  eighteen  to  thirty  shillings  a 
week,  and  remain  for  a  few  weeks  or  months,  and  occa- 
sionally even  for  longer  periods,  knowing,  of  course,  that 
they  have  to  submit  to  the  precautions  which  are  absolutely 
needed  to  prevent  them  from  appropriating  the  diamonds 
they  may  happen  to  find  in  the  course  of  their  work.  To 
encourage  honesty,  ten  per  cent,  of  the  value  of  any  stone 
which  a  workman  may  find  is  given  to  him  if  he  brings 
it  himself  to  the  overseer,  and  the  value  of  the  stones  on 
which  this  ten  per  cent,  is  paid  is  estimated  at  four  hun- 
dred thousand  pounds  (two  million  dollars)  in  each  year. 
Nevertheless,  a  certain  number  of  thefts  occur.  I  heard 
from  a  missionary  an  anecdote  of  a  Basuto  who,  after 
his  return  from  Kimberley,  was  describing  how,  on  one 
occasion,  his  eye  fell  on  a  valuable  diamond  in  the  clay 
he  was  breaking  into  fragments.  While  he  was  endeavor- 
ing to  pick  it  up  he  perceived  the  overseer  approaching, 
and,  having  it  by  this  time  in  his  hand,  was  for  a  moment 
terribly  frightened,  the  punishment  for  theft  being  very 
severe.  The  overseer,  however,  passed  on.  "  And  then," 
said  the  Basuto,  "  I  knew  that  there  was  indeed  a  God, 
for  he  had  preserved  me." 

When  the  native  has  earned  the  sum  he  wants— and  his 
earnings  accumulate  quickly,  since  he  can  live  upon  very 
little— he  takes  his  wages  in  English  sovereigns,  a  coin 
now  current  through  all  Africa  as  far  as  Tanganyika, 
goes  home  to  his  own  tribe,  perhaps  a  month's  or  six 
weeks'  journey  distant,  buys  two  oxen,  buys  with  them  a 
wife,  and  lives  happily,  or  at  least  lazily,  ever  after.  Here 
in  the  vast  oblong  compound  one  sees  Zulus  from  Natal, 
Fingos,  Pondos,  Tembus,  Basutos,  Bechuanas,  Gungun- 
hana's  subjects  from  the  Portuguese  territories,  some  few 


206  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


Matabili  and  Makalaka,  and  plenty  of  Zambesi  boys  from 
tlie  tribes  on  both  sides  of  that  great  river— a  li\'ing 
ethnological  collection  such  as  can  be  examined  nowhere 
else  in  South  Africa.  Even  Bushmen,  or  at  least  natives 
with  some  Bushman  blood  in  them,  are  not  wanting.  They 
live  peaceably  together,  and  amuse  themselves  in  their 
several  ways  during  their  leisure  hours.  Besides  games 
of  chance,  we  saw  a  game  resembling  "fox  and  geese," 
played  with  pebbles  on  a  board;  and  music  was  being 
discoursed  on  two  rude  native  instruments,  the  so-called 
"  Kafir  piano,"  made  of  pieces  of  iron  of  unequal  length 
fastened  side  by  side  in  a  frame,  and  a  still  ruder  contri- 
vance of  hard  bits  of  wood,  also  of  unequal  size,  which 
when  struck  by  a  stick  emit  different  notes,  the  first  be- 
ginnings of  a  tune.  A  very  few  were  reading  or  writing 
letters,  the  rest  busy  with  their  cooking  or  talking  to  one 
another.  Some  tribes  are  incessant  talkers,  and  in  this 
strange  mixing-pot  of  black  men  one  may  hear  a  dozen 
languages  spoken  as  one  passes  from  group  to  group. 

The  climate  of  Kimberley  is  healthy,  and  even  bracing, 
though  not  pleasant  when  a  northwest  wind  from  the  Ka- 
lahari Desert  fills  the  air  with  sand  and  dust.  Its  dryness 
recommends  it  as  a  resort  for  consumptive  patients, 
while  the  existence  of  a  cultivated,  though  small,  society 
makes  it  a  less  doleful  place  of  residence  than  are  the 
sanatoria  of  the  Karroo.  The  country  round  is,  however, 
far  from  attractive.  Save  on  the  east,  where  there  rises  a 
line  of  hiUs  just  high  enough  to  catch  the  lovely  lights  of 
evening  and  give  color  and  variety  to  the  landscape,  the 
prospect  is  monotonous  in  every  direction.  Like  the  ocean, 
this  vast  plain  is  so  flat  that  you  cannot  see  how  vast  it  is. 
Except  in  the  environs  of  the  town,  it  is  unbroken  by  tree 
or  house,  and  in  a  part  of  those  environs  the  masses  of 


FROM  CAPE  TOWN  TO  BULAWAYO  207 


bluish-gray  mine  refuse  that  strew  the  ground  give  a 
dismal  and  even  squalid  air  to  the  foreground  of  the 
view.  One  is  reminded  of  the  deserted  coal-pits  that 
surround  Wigan,  or  the  burnt-out  and  waste  parts  of 
the  Black  Country  in  South  Staffordshire,  though  at 
Kimberley  there  is,  happily,  no  coal-smoke  or  sulphurous 
fumes  in  the  air,  no  cinder  on  the  sui-face,  no  coal-dust  to 
thicken  the  mud  and  blacken  the  roads.  Some  squalor 
one  must  have  with  that  disturbance  of  nature  which 
mining  involves,  but  here  the  enlightened  activity  of  the 
Company  and  the  settlers  has  done  its  best  to  mitigate 
these  evils  by  the  planting  of  trees  and  orchards,  by  the 
taste  which  many  of  the  private  houses  show,  and  by  the 
provision  here  and  there  of  open  spaces  for  games. 

From  Kimberley  the  newly  opened  railway  runs  one 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  farther  north  to  Vryburg,  till  lately 
the  capital  of  the  Crown  Colony  of  British  Bechuanaland, 
annexed  in  1895  to  Cape  Colony,  and  thence  to  Mafeking. 
After  a  few  miles  the  line  crosses  the  Vaal  River,  here  a 
respectable  stream  for  South  Africa,  since  it  has,  even  in 
the  dry  season,  more  water  than  the  Cam  at  Cambridge, 
or  the  Cherwell  at  Oxford— perhaps  as  much  as  the  Arno 
at  Florence.  It  flows  in  a  wide,  rocky  bed,  about  thirty  feet 
below  the  level  of  the  adjoining  country.  The  country 
becomes  more  undulating  as  the  line  approaches  the 
frontiers,  first  of  the  Orange  Free  State,  and  then  of  the 
Transvaal  Republic,  which  bounds  that  state  on  the  north. 
Bushes  are  seen,  and  presently  trees,  nearly  all  prickly 
mimosas,  small  and  unattractive,  but  a  pleasant  relief 
from  the  bare  flats  of  Kimberley,  whence  all  the  wood 
that  formerly  grew  there  has  been  taken  for  mine  props 
and  for  fuel.  There  is  more  grass,  too,  and  presently 
patches  of  cultivated  land  appear,  where  Kafirs  grow 


208  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


maize,  called  in  South  Africa  "  mealies."  Near  the  village 
of  Taungs  ^  a  large  native  reservation  is  passed,  where 
part  of  the  Batlapin  tribe  is  settled,  and  here  a  good 
deal  of  gi'ound  is  tilled,  though  in  September,  when 
no  crop  is  visible,  one  scarcely  notices  the  fields,  since 
they  are  entirely  uninclosed,  mere  strips  on  the  veldt,  a 
little  browner  than  the  rest,  and  with  fewer  shrublets 
on  them.  But  the  landscape  remains  equally  featureless 
and  monotonous,  redeemed  only,  as  evening  falls,  by  the 
tints  of  purple  and  violet  which  glow  upon  the  low 
ridges  or  swells  of  groimd  that  rise  in  the  distance.  Vry- 
burg  is  a  cheerful  little  place  of  brick  walls  and  corrugated- 
iron  roofs ;  Maf eking  another  such,  still  smaller,  and,  beLug 
newer,  with  a  still  larger  proportion  of  shanties  to  houses. 
At  Mafeking,  eight  hundred  and  seventy-five  miles  from 
Cape  Town,  the  railway  ended  in  1895  (though  now,  in 
January,  1897,  it  is  being  opened  to  the  hamlet  of 
Gaberones  [pronounced  "  Haberoons "],  ninety-sis  miles 
farther  north).  Here  ends  also  the  territory  of  Cape 
Colony,  the  rest  of  Bechuanaland  to  the  north  and  west 
forming  the  so-caUed  Bechuanaland  Protectorate,  which 
in  October,  1895,  was  handed  over  by  the  Colonial  Ofllce, 
subject  to  certain  restrictions  and  provisions  for  the 
benefit  of  the  natives,  to  the  British  South  Africa  Com- 
pany, within  the  sphere  of  whose  operations  it  had,  by 
the  charter  of  1890,  been  included.  After  the  invasion 
of  the  Transvaal  Republic  by  the  expedition  led  by  Dr. 
Jameson,  which  started  from  Pitsani,  a  few  miles  north 
of  Mafeking,  in  December,  1895,  this  transfer  was  recalled, 
and  Bechuanaland  is  now  again  under  the  direct  control 

1  Here,  in  December,  1896,  the  natives  rose  in  revolt,  exasperated 
by  the  slaughter  of  their  cattle,  though  that  slaughter  was  the  only- 
method  of  cheeking  the  progress  of  the  cattle-plague. 


PROM  CAPE  TOWN  TO  BULAWAYO  209 


of  the  High  Commissioner  foi'  South  Africa  as  represent- 
ing the  British  crown.  It  is  administered  by  magistrates, 
who  have  a  force  of  police  at  their  command,  and  by  native 
chiefs,  the  most  powerful  and  famous  of  whom  is  Khama. 

Close  to  Maf  eking  itself  there  was  living  a  chieftain  whose 
long  career  is  interwoven  with  many  of  the  wars  and  raids 
that  went  on  between  the  Boers  and  the  natives  from  1840 
to  1885— Montsioa  (pronounced  "Montsiwa"),  the  head  of  a 
tribe  of  Barolongs.  We  were  taken  to  see  him,  and  found 
him  sitting  on  a  low  chair  under  a  tree  in  the  midst  of  his 
huge  native  village,  dressed  in  a  red  flannel  shirt,  a  pair  of 
corduroy  trousers,  and  a  broad  gray  felt  hat  with  a  jackal's 
tail  stuck  in  it  for  ornament.  His  short,  woolly  hair  was 
white,  and  his  chocolate-colored  skin,  hard  and  tough  like 
that  of  a  rhinoceros,  was  covered  with  a  fretwork  of  tiny 
wrinkles,  such  as  one  seldom  sees  on  a  European  face.  He 
was  proud  of  his  great  age  (eighty-five),  and  recalled  the 
names  of  several  British  governors  and  generals  during 
the  last  seventy  years.  But  his  chief  interest  was  in  in- 
quiries (through  his  interpreter)  regarding  the  Queen  and 
events  in  England,  and  he  amused  his  visitors  by  the 
diplomatic  shrewdness  with  which,  on  being  told  that 
there  had  been  a  change  of  government  in  England,  and 
a  majority  in  favor  of  the  new  government,  he  observed, 
"They  have  made  a  mistake ;  they  could  not  have  had  a 
better  government  than  the  old  one."  He  was  a  wealthy 
man,  owning  an  immense  number  of  the  oxen  which  used 
to  carry  on  (for  the  cattle-plague  has  now  carried  off  most 
of  them)  the  transport  service  between  Maf  eking  and  Bula- 
wayo  ;  and,  from  all  I  could  learn,  he  riiled  his  people  well, 
following  the  counsels  of  the  British  government,  which 
in  1885  delivered  him  out  of  the  hands  of  the  Boers.  He 
died  in  the  middle  of  1896. 

14 


210 


IMPRESSIONS  OP  SOUTH  AFRICA 


At  Mafeking  we  bade  farewell  to  the  railway,  and  pre- 
pai'ed  to  plunge  into  the  wilderness.  We  traveled  in  a 
light  American  wagon,  having  a  Cape  Dutchman  as  driver 
and  a  colored  "  Cape  boy  "  to  help  him,  but  no  other  atten- 
dants. The  wagon  had  a  small  iron  tank,  which  we  filled 
with  water  that  had  been  boiled  to  kill  the  noxious  germs, 
and  with  this  we  made  our  soup  and  tea.  For  provisions 
we  carried  biscuits,  a  little  tinned  soup  and  meat,  and  a 
few  bottles  of  soda-water.  These  last  proved  to  be  the  most 
useful  part  of  our  stores,  for  the  stream-  or  well-water 
along  the  route  was  undrinkable,  and  oui*  mouths  were 
often  so  parched  that  it  was  only  by  the  help  of  sips  of 
soda-water  that  we  could  succeed  in  swallowing  the  dry 
food.  At  the  European  stores  which  occur  along  the  road, 
usually  at  intervals  of  thii-ty  or  fortj'  mUes,  though  some- 
times there  is  none  for  sixty  mOes  or  more,  we  could  often 
procure  eggs  and  sometimes  a  lean  chicken ;  so  there  was 
enough  to  support  life,  though  we  seldom  got  what  is  called 
in  America  "  a  square  meal." 

Northward  from  Mafeking  the  country  grows  pretty. 
At  fii-st  there  are  trees  scattered  picturesquely  over  the 
undulating  pastures  and  sometimes  forming  woods— dry 
and  open  woods,  yet  welcome  after  the  bareness  which 
one  has  left  behind.  Here  we  passed  the  tiny  group  of 
houses  called  Pitsani,  httle  dreaming  that  three  months 
later  it  would  become  famous  as  the  place  where  the  Mata- 
bililand  police  were  marshaled,  and  from  which  they  started 
on  their  Ul-starred  march  into  the  Transvaal,  whose  hills 
we  saw  a  few  miles  away  to  the  east.  Presently  the  ground 
becomes  rougher,  and  the  track  winds  among  and  under  a 
succession  of  abrupt  kopjes  (pronounced  "koppies  "),  mostly 
of  granitic  or  gneissose  rock.  One  is  surprised  that  a  heavy 
coach,  and  still  heavier  wagons,  can  so  easUy  traverse  such 


FROM  CAPE  TOWN  TO  BULAWAYO  211 

a  country,  for  the  road  is  only  a  track,  for  which  art  has 
done  nothing  save  in  cutting  a  way  through  the  trees.  It 
is  one  of  the  curious  features  of  South  Africa  that  the  rocky 
hills  have  an  unusual  faculty  for  standing  detached  enough 
from  one  another  to  allow  wheeled  vehicles  to  pass  be- 
tween them,  and  the  country  is  so  dry  that  morasses,  the 
obstacle  which  a  driver  chiefly  fears  in  most  countries,  are 
here,  for  three  fourths  of  the  year,  not  feared  at  all. 
This  region  of  bold,  craggy  hills,  sparsely  wooded,  usually 
rising  only  some  few  hundred  feet  out  of  the  plateau  itself, 
which  is  about  4000  feet  above  the  sea,  continues  for 
about  thirty  miles.  To  it  there  succeeds  a  long  stretch  of 
flat  land  along  the  banks  of  the  sluggish  Notwani,  the  only 
perennial  river  of  these  parts;  for  the  stream  which  on 
the  map  bears  the  name  of  Molopo,  and  runs  away  west 
into  the  desert  to  lose  nearly  all  of  its  water  in  the  sands, 
is  in  September  dry,  and  one  crosses  its  channel  without 
noticing  it.  This  Notwani,  whose  course  is  marked  by  a 
line  of  trees  taller  and  greener  than  the  rest,  is  at  this 
season  no  better  than  a  feeble  brook,  flowing  slowly,  with 
more  mud  than  water.  But  it  contains  not  only  good- 
sized  fish,  the  catching  of  which  is  the  chief  hohday  di- 
version of  these  parts,  but  also  crocodiles,  which,  generally 
dormant  during  the  season  of  low  water,  are  apt  to  ob- 
trude themselves  when  they  are  least  expected,  and  would 
make  bathing  dangerous,  were  there  any  temptation  to 
bathe  in  such  a  thick  green  fluid.  That  men  as  well  as 
cattle  should  drink  it  seems  surprising,  yet  they  do, — 
Europeans  as  well  as  natives,— and  apparently  with  no 
bad  effects.  Below  Palla,  one  hundred  and  ninety-five 
miles  north  of  Maf eking,  the  Notwani  joins  the  Limpopo, 
or  Crocodile  River,  a  much  larger  stream,  which  has 
come  down  from  the  Transvaal  hills,  and  winds  for  nearly 


212  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


a  thousand  miles  to  the  north  and  east  before  it  falls 
into  the  Indian  Ocean.  It  is  here  nearly  as  wide  as  the 
Thames  at  Henley,  fordable  in  some  places,  and  flowing 
very  gently.  The  country  all  along  this  part  of  the  road 
is  perfectly  fl^at,  and  just  after  the  wet  season  very  fever- 
ish, but  it  may  be  traversed  with  impunity  from  the  end 
of  May  till  December.  It  is  a  dull  region— everywhere 
the  same  thin  wood,  through  which  one  can  see  for  about 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  every  direction,  consisting  of 
two  or  three  kinds  of  mimosa,  all  thorny,  and  all  so 
spare  and  starved  in  their  leafage  that  one  gets  little 
shade  beneath  them  when  at  the  midday  halt  shelter  has 
to  be  sought  from  the  formidable  sun.  On  the  parched 
ground  there  is  an  undergrowth  of  prickly  shrubs, 
among  which  it  is  necessarj'  to  move  with  as  much  care  as 
is  needed  in  climbing  a  barbed- wire  fence.  When  at  night, 
camping  out  on  the  veldt,  one  gathers  brushwood  to  light 
the  cooking-fire,  both  the  clothes  and  the  hands  of  the 
novice  come  badly  off.  Huge  ant-hills  begin  to  appear, 
sometimes  fifteen  to  twenty  feet  high  and  as  many  yards 
in  cu'cumf  erence ;  but  these  large  ones  are  all  dead  and  may 
be  of  considerable  age.  In  some  places  they  are  so  high 
and  steep,  and  stand  so  close  together,  that  by  joining  them 
with  an  earthen  rampart  a  strong  fort  might  be  made. 
When  people  begin  to  till  the  ground  more  largely  than 
the  natives  now  do,  the  soil  heaped  up  in  these  great  mounds 
will  be  found  most  ser^deeable.  It  consists  of  good  mold, 
very  friable,  and  when  spread  out  over  the  surface  ought 
to  prove  very  fertile.  In  pulverizing  the  soil,  the  ants 
render  here  much  the  same  kind  of  service  which  the 
earthworm  does  iu  Europe.  There  are  no  flowers  at  this 
season  (end  of  September),  and  very  little  grass ;  yet  men 
say  that  there  is  no  better  ranching  country  in  all  South 


FROM  CAPE  TOWN  TO  BULAWAYO  213 

Africa,  and  the  oxen  which  one  meets  all  the  way,  feeding 
round  the  spots  where  the  transport- wagons  have  halted, 
evidently  manage  to  pick  up  enough  herbage  to  support 
them.  The  number  of  ox- wagons  is  sui-prising  in  so 
lonely  a  country,  till  one  remembers  that  most  of  the 
food  and  drink,  as  well  as  of  the  furniture,  agricultural 
and  mining  tools,  and  wood  for  building,— indeed,  most 
of  the  necessaries  and  aU  the  luxuries  of  Ufe  needed 
in  MatabiUland,— have  to  be  sent  up  along  this  road, 
which  is  more  used  than  the  alternative  route  through 
the  Transvaal  from  Pretoria  via  Pietersburg.  No 
wonder  all  sorts  of  articles  are  costly  in  Bulawayo, 
when  it  has  taken  eight  or  ten  weeks  to  bring  them 
from  the  nearest  railway  terminus.  The  wagons  do 
most  of  their  journeying  by  night,  allowing  the  oxen  to 
rest  during  the  heat  of  the  day.  One  of  the  minor  troubles 
of  travel  is  the  meeting  by  one's  vehicle  of  a  string  of 
wagons,  sometimes  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  mile  long,  for 
each  wagon  has  eight  or  nine,  or  even  ten,  span  of  oxen. 
They  move  very  slowly,  and  at  night,  when  the  track 
happens  to  be  a  narrow  one  among  trees,  it  is  not 
easy  to  get  past.  Except  for  these  wagons  the  road  is 
lonely.  One  sees  few  natives,  though  the  narrow  foot- 
paths crossing  the  wagon-track  show  that  the  country  is 
inhabited.  Here  and  there  one  passes  a  large  native 
village,  such  as  Ramoutsie  and  Machudi,  but  small  ham- 
lets are  rare,  and  soUtary  huts  stiU  rarer.  The  country  is 
of  course  very  thinly  peopled  in  proportion  to  its  resources, 
for,  what  with  the  good  pasture  nearly  everywhere  and 
the  fertile  land  in  many  places,  it  could  support  eight  or  ten 
times  the  number  of  Barolongs,  Bamangwato,  and  other 
Bechuanas  who  now  live  scattered  over  its  vast  area.  It  is 
not  the  beasts  of  prey  that  are  to  blame  for  this,  for,  with 

14* 


214 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


the  disappearance  of  game,  lions  have  become  extremely 
scarce,  and  leopards  and  lynxes  are  no  longer  common. 
Few  quadrupeds  are  seen,  and  not  many  kinds  of  birds. 
Vultures,  hawks,  and  a  species  something  like  a  magpie, 
with  four  pretty  white  patches  upon  the  wings  and  a  long 
tail,  are  the  commonest,  together  with  bluish-gray  guinea- 
fowl,  pigeons,  and  sometimes  a  smaU  partridge.  In 
some  parts  there  are  plenty  of  bustards,  prized  as  dainties, 
but  we  saw  very  few.  Away  from  the  track  some  buck 
of  the  commoner  kinds  may  stiU  be  found,  and  farther  to 
the  west  there  is  still  plenty  of  big  game  in  the  Kalahari 
Desert.  But  the  region  which  we  traversed  is  almost  as 
unattractive  to  the  sportsman  as  it  is  to  the  lover  of  beauty. 
It  is,  indeed,  one  of  the  dullest  parts  of  South  Africa. 

The  next  stage  in  the  journey  is  marked  by  Palapshwye, 
Khama's  capital.  This  is  the  largest  native  town  south  of 
the  Zambesi,  for  it  has  a  population  estimated  at  over 
20,000.  It  came  into  being  only  a  few  years  ago,  when 
Khama,  having  returned  from  the  exde  to  which  his  father 
had  consigned  him  on  account  of  his  steadfast  adherence  to 
Christianity,  and  having  succeeded  to  the  chieftainship  of 
the  Bamangwato,  moved  the  tribe  from  its  pre\dous 
dwelling-place  at  Shoshong,  some  eight>'  miles  to  the  south- 
west, and  fixed  it  here.  Such  migrations  and  founda^ 
tions  of  new  towns  are  not  uncommon  in  South  Africa, 
as  they  were  not  uncommon  in  India  in  the  days  of  the 
Pathan  and  MogTJ  sovereigns,  when  each  new  occupant 
of  the  throne  generally  chose  a  new  residence  to  fortify 
or  adorn.  Why  this  particular  site  was  chosen  I  do  not 
know.  It  stands  high,  and  is  free  from  malaria,  and  there 
are  springs  of  water  in  the  craggy  hill  behind;  but  the 
country  all  round  is  poor,  rocky  in  some  places,  sandy  in 
others,  and  less  attractive  than  some  other  parts  of 


FROM  CAPE  TOWN  TO  BULAWAYO  215 

Beclnianaland.  We  entered  the  town  late  at  night, 
delayed  by  the  deep  sand  on  the  track,  and  wandered 
about  for  a  long  while  before,  after  knocking  at  one  hut 
after  another,  we  could  persuade  any  native  to  come  out 
and  show  us  the  way  to  the  little  cluster  of  European 
dwelUngs.  The  Kafirs  are  terribly  afraid  of  the  night, 
and  fear  the  ghosts,  which  are  to  them  the  powers  of 
darkness,  more  than  they  care  for  offers  of  money. 

Khama  was  absent  in  England,  pressing  upon  the 
Colonial  OflQ.ce  his  objections  to  the  demand  made  by  the 
British  South  Africa  Company  that  his  kingdom  should 
be  brought  within  the  scope  of  their  administration  and  a 
railway  constructed  through  it  from  Mafeking  to  Bula- 
wayo.  Besides  the  natural  wish  of  a  monarch  to  retain 
his  authority  undiminished,  he  was  moved  by  the  desire 
to  keep  his  subjects  from  the  use  of  intoxicating  spirits, 
a  practice  which  the  estabhshment  of  white  men  among 
them  would  make  it  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  prevent. 
The  main  object  of  Khama'sHfe  andriilehas  been  to  keep 
his  people  from  intoxicants.  His  feelings  were  expressed 
in  a  letter  to  a  British  commissioner,  in  which  he  said: 
"  I  fear  Lo  Bengula  less  than  I  fear  brandy.  I  fought 
against  Lo  Bengula  and  drove  him  back.  He  never 
gives  me  a  sleepless  night.  But  to  fight  against  drink  is 
to  fight  against  demons  and  not  men.  I  fear  the  white 
man's  drink  more  than  the  assagais  of  the  Matabili, 
which  kill  men's  bodies.  Drink  puts  devils  into  men  and 
destroys  their  souls  and  bodies."  Though  a  Christian  him- 
self, and  giving  the  missionaries  in  his  dominions  every 
facility  for  their  work,  he  has  never  attempted  to  make 
converts  by  force.  A  prohibition  of  the  use  of  alcohol, 
however,  has  seemed  to  him  to  lie  "within  the  sphere  of 
governmental  action,"  and  he  has,  indeed,  imperiled  his 


216  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


throne  by  efforts  to  prevent  the  Bamangwato  from 
making  and  drinking  the  stronger  kind  of  Kafir  beer,  to 
which,  like  all  natives,  they  were  much  addicted.^  This 
beer  is  made  from  the  so-called  "Kafir-corn"  (a  grain 
resembling  millet,  commonly  cultivated  by  the  natives), 
and,  though  less  strong  than  European-made  spirits, 
is  more  intoxicating  than  German  or  even  EngUsh 
ale.  Khama's  prohibition  of  it  had,  shortly  before  my 
visit,  led  to  a  revolt  and  threatened  secession  of  a  part  of 
the  tribe  under  his  younger  brother,  Radiclani,  and  the  royal 
reformer  (himself  a  strict  total  abstainer)  had  been  com- 
pelled to  give  way,  lamenting,  in  a  pathetic  speech,  that 
his  subjects  would  not  suffer  him  to  do  what  was  best  for 
them.  Just  about  the  same  time,  in  England,  the  proposal 
of  a  measure  to  check  the  use  of  intoxicating  liquors  led 
to  the  overthrow  of  a  great  party  and  clouded  the  pros- 
pects of  any  temperance  legislation.  Alike  in  Britain  and 
in  Bechuanaland  it  is  no  light  matter  to  interfere  with 
a  people's  favorite  indulgences.  European  spirits  are, 
however,  so  much  more  deleterious  than  Kafir  beer  that 
Kliama  still  fought  hard  against  their  introduction.  The 
British  South  Africa  Company  forbids  the  sale  of  in- 
toxicants to  natives  in  its  territory,  but  Khama  natu- 
rally felt  that  when  at  railway-stations  and  stores  spirits 
were  being  freely  consumed  by  whites  the  difficulty  of 
keeping  them  from  natives  would  be  largely  increased. 
The  Colonial  Office  gave  leave  for  the  construction  of 
the  railway,  and  brought  Khama  into  closer  relations  with 
the  Company,  while  securing  to  him  a  large  reserve  and 
estabhshing  certain  pro^■isions  for  his  benefit  and  that  of 
his  people.  However,  a  few  months  later  (in  the  beginning 

1  There  is  also  a  weaker  kind  made,  intoxicating  only  if  consumed 
in  very  large  quantity. 


FROM  CAPE  TOWN  TO  BULAWAYO  217 

of  1896)  the  extension  of  the  Company's  powers  as  to 
Bechuanaland  was  recalled,  and  Khama  is  now  under  the 
direct  protection  of  the  Imperial  Government. 

His  kingdom  covers  on  the  map  a  vast  but  ill-defined 
area,  stretching  on  the  west  into  the  Kalahari  Desert,  and 
on  the  northwest  into  the  thinly  peopled  country  round 
Lake  Ngami,  where  various  small  tribes  live  in  practical 
independence.  Sovereignty  among  African  natives  is 
tribal  rather  than  territorial.  Khama  is  the  chief  of  the 
Bamangwato  rather  than  ruler  of  a  country,  and  where 
the  Bamangwato  live  there  Khama  reigns.  Probably  two 
thirds  of  them  live  in  or  near  Palapshwye.  Born  about 
1830,  he  is  by  far  the  most  remarkable  Kafir  now  living  in 
South  Africa,  for  he  has  shown  a  tact,  prudence,  and  tena- 
city of  purpose  which  would  have  done  credit  to  a  Eu- 
ropean statesman.  He  was  converted  to  Christianity 
whUe  still  a  boy,  and  had  much  persecution  to  endure  at 
the  hands  of  his  heathen  father,  who  at  last  banished 
him  for  refusing  to  take  a  second  wife.  What  is  not  less 
remarkable,  he  has  carried  his  Christianity  into  practice, 
evincing  both  a  sense  of  honor  as  well  as  a  humanity 
which  has  made  him  the  special  protector  of  the  old  and 
the  weak,  and  even  of  the  Bushmen  who  serve  the  Ba- 
mangwato. Regarded  as  fighters,  his  people  are  far  in- 
ferior to  the  Matabni,  and  he  was  often  in  danger  of  being 
overpowered  by  the  fierce  and  rapacious  Lo  Bengula. 
As  early  as  1862  he  crossed  assagais  with  and  defeated 
a  Matabili  impi  (war-band),  earning  the  praise  of  the 
grim  Mosilikatze,  who  said,  "Khama  is  a  man.  There 
is  no  other  man  among  the  Bamangwato."  Though  fre- 
quently thereafter  threatened  and  sometimes  attacked, 
he  succeeded,  by  his  skilful  policy,  in  avoiding  any  serious 
war  until  the  fall  of  Lo  Bengula  in  1893.    Seeing  the  tide 


218 


EMPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


of  wMte  conquest  rising  all  round  him,  he  has  had  a  diffi- 
cult problem  to  face,  and  it  is  not  sui'prising  that  he  has 
been  less  eager  to  welcome  the  Company  and  its  railway 
than  those  who  considered  him  the  white  man's  friend  had 
expected.  The  coming  of  the  whites  means  not  only  the 
coming  of  liquor,  but  the  gradual  occupation  of  the  large 
open  tracts  where  the  natives  have  hunted  and  pastured 
their  cattle,  and  a  change  in  their  mode  of  life,  which, 
inevitable  as  it  may  be,  a  patriotic  chief  may  natui-aUy 
wish  to  delay. 

Palapshwye,  the  largest  native  town  south  of  the  Zam- 
besi, is  an  immense  mass  of  huts,  planted  without  the 
smallest  attempt  at  order  over  the  sandy  hiU  slope,  some 
two  square  miles  in  extent.  The  huts  are  small,  with  low 
walls  of  clay  and  roofs  of  grass,  so  that  from  a  distance 
the  place  looks  like  a  wilderness  of  beehives.  Each  of  the 
chief  men  has  his  own  hut  and  those  of  his  wives  inclosed 
in  a  rough  fence  of  thorns,  or  perhaps  of  prickly-pear, 
and  between  the  groups  of  huts  lie  open  spaces  of  sand 
or  dusty  tracks.  In  the  middle  of  the  town,  close  to  the 
huts  of  Khama  himself,  who,  however,  being  a  Christian, 
has  but  one  wife,  stands  the  great  kraal,  or  Jcothla.  It  is  an 
inclosure  some  three  hundred  yards  in  circumference,  sur- 
rounded by  a  stockade  ten  feet  high,  made  of  dry  trunks  and 
boughs  of  trees  stuck  in  the  ground  so  close  together  that 
one  could  not  even  shoot  a  gun  or  hurl  an  assagai  through 
them.  This  stockade  might  resist  the  first  attack  of  native 
enemies  if  the  rest  of  the  town  had  been  captured,  but  it 
would  soon  yield  to  fii'e.  In  the  middle  of  it  stands  the 
now  dry  trunk  of  an  old  tree,  spared  when  the  other  trees 
were  cut  down  to  make  the  kraal,  because  it  was  supposed 
to  have  magical  powers  and  heal  those  who  touched  it. 
A  heap  of  giraffe  skins  lay  piled  against  it,  but  its  healing 


rROM  CAPE  TOWN  TO  BULAWAYO 


219 


capacity  now  finds  less  credit,  at  least  among  those  who 
wish  to  stand  well  with  the  chief.  Within  this  inclosure 
Khama  holds  his  general  assemblies  when  he  has  some 
address  to  deliver  to  the  people  or  some  ordinance  to 
proclaim.  He  administers  criminal  justice  among  the 
people  and  decides  their  civil  disputes,  usually  with  the 
aid  of  one  or  two  elderly  counselors.  He  has  tried  to 
improve  their  agricultural  methods,  and,  being  fond  of 
horses,  has  formed  a  good  stud.  Unhappily,  in  1896  the 
great  murrain  descended  upon  the  Bamangwato,  and 
Khama  and  his  tribe  have  lost  nearly  aU  the  cattle  (said 
to  have  numbered  eight  hundi'ed  thousand)  in  which  their 
wealth  consisted. 

The  British  magistrate— there  are  about  seventy  Euro- 
peans living  in  the  town— described  these  Bechuanas  as  a 
quiet  folk,  not  hard  to  manage.  They  have  less  force  of 
character  and  much  less  taste  for  fighting  than  Zulus  or 
MatabiU.  The  main  impression  which  they  leave  on  a 
stranger  is  that  of  laziness.  Of  the  many  whom  we  saw 
hanging  about  in  the  sun,  hardly  one  seemed  to  be  doing 
any  kind  of  work.  Nor  do  they.  They  grow  a  few  mealies 
(maize),  but  it  is  chiefly  the  women  who  hoe  and  plant  the 
ground.  They  know  how  to  handle  wire  and  twist  it 
round  the  handles  of  the  sjamboks  (whips  of  hippopotamus 
hide).  But,  having  few  wants  and  no  ambition,  they  have 
practically  no  industries,  and  spend  their  lives  in  sleeping, 
loafing,  and  talking.  When  one  watches  such  a  race,  it 
seems  aU  the  stranger  that  a  man  of  such  remarkable  force 
of  character  as  Khama  should  suddenly  appear  among 
them.i 

1  For  most  of  what  is  here  stated  regarding  Khama  I  am  indebted 
to  an  interesting  little  book  by  the  late  Bishop  Knight-Bruce,  en- 
titled "Khama,  an  African  Chief." 


220 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


For  about  sixty  miles  northeastward  from  Palapshwye 
the  country  continues  dull,  diy,  and  mostly  level.  After 
that  rocky  hills  appear,  and  in  the  beds  of  the  larger 
streams  a  little  water  is  seen.  At  Tati,  ninety  miles  from 
Palapshwye  (nearly  four  hundred  from  Mafeking),  gold- 
reefs  have  been  worked  at  intervals  for  five  and  twenty 
years,  under  a  concession  originally  granted  (in  1869) 
by  Lo  Bengula,  and  a  little  European  settlement  has 
grown  up.  Here  one  passes  from  Bechuanaland  into  the 
territories  which  belonged  to  the  MatabUi,  and  now  to  the 
British  South  Afi'ica  Company.  The  country  rises  and 
grows  more  picturesque.  The  grass  is  greener  on  the 
pastures.  New  trees  appear,  some  of  them  with  beautiful 
flowers,  and  the  air  is  full  of  tales  of  Hons.  For,  in  Africa, 
where  there  is  more  grass  there  is  more  game,  and  where 
there  is  more  game  there  are  more  beasts  of  prey.  Lions, 
we  were  told,  had  last  week  dragged  a  Kafir  from  beneath 
a  wagon  where  he  was  sleeping.  Lions  had  been  seen 
yestereve  trotting  before  the  coach.  Lions  would  prob- 
ably be  seen  again  to-morrow.  But  to  us  the  beast  was 
always  a  lion  of  yesterday  or  a  lion  of  to-morrow,  never  a 
Hon  of  to-day.  The  most  direct  evidence  we  had  of  his 
presence  was  when,  some  days  later,  we  were  shown  a 
horse  on  which  that  morning  a  lion  had  sprung,  inflict- 
ing terrible  wounds.  The  rider  was  not  touched,  and 
galloped  the  poor  animal  back  to  camp.  At  Mangwe, 
a  pretty  little  station  with  unusually  bad  sleeping  quar- 
ters, the  romantic  part  of  the  country  may  be  said  to 
begin.  All  round  there  are  rocky  kopjes,  and  the  track 
which  leads  northward  follows  a  line  of  hollows  between 
them,  called  the  Mangwe  Pass,  a  point  which  was  of  much 
strategical  importance  in  the  MatabUi  war  of  1893,  and 
has  been  again  of  so  much  importance  in  the  recent  native 


FKOM  CAPE  TOWN  TO  BULAWAYO  221 


rising  (1896)  that  one  of  the  first  acts  of  the  British  au- 
thorities was  to  construct  a  rough  fort  in  it  and  place  a 
garrison  there.  Oddly  enough,  the  insurgents  did  not  try- 
to  occupy  it,  and  thereby  cut  off  the  English  in  Matabili- 
land  from  their  railway  base  at  Mafeking,  the  reason 
being,  as  I  am  informed,  that  the  MoUmo,  or  prophet, 
whose  incitements  contributed  to  the  insurrection,  had 
told  them  that  it  was  by  the  road  through  this  pass  that 
the  white  strangers  would  quit  the  country  for  ever. 

A  more  peaceful  spot  could  not  be  imagined  than 
the  pass  was  when  we  passed  through  it  at  5  a.  m., 
"  under  the  opening  eyelids  of  the  dawn."  Smooth  green 
lawns,  each  surrounded  by  a  fringe  of  wood,  and  fiUed 
with  the  songs  of  awakening  birds,  lay  beneath  the  beet- 
ling crags  of  granite, — granite  whose  natural  gray  was 
hidden  by  brilliant  red  and  yeUow  lichens, — and  here  and 
there  a  clear  streamlet  trickled  across  the  path.  Climbing 
to  the  top  of  one  of  these  rocky  masses,  I  enjoyed  a  su- 
perb view  to  north,  west,  and  east,  over  a  wUderness  of 
rugged  hills,  with  huge  masses  of  gray  rock  rising  out  of 
a  feathery  forest,  wliile  to  the  north  the  undulating  line, 
faintly  blue  in  the  far  distance,  marked  the  point  where 
the  plateau  of  central  Matabililand  begins  to  decline  toward 
the  vaUey  of  the  Zambesi.  It  was  a  beautiful  prospect  both 
in  the  wild  variety  of  the  foreground  and  in  the  delicate 
hues  of  ridge  after  ridge  melting  away  toward  the  horizon, 
and  it  was  without  a  trace  of  human  life  or  habitation— all 
waste  and  silent,  as  it  came  from  the  hands  of  the  Creator, 

The  track  winds  through  the  hills  for  some  six  or  eight 
mUes  before  it  emerges  on  the  more  open  country.  These 
hnis,  which  form  a  sort  of  range  running  east-southeast 
and  west-northwest,  are  the  Matoppo  HiUs,  in  which  the 
main  body  of  the  Matabili  and  other  insiirgent  natives 


222 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


held  their  ground  during  the  months  of  April,  May,  and 
June,  1896.  Although  the  wood  is  not  very  thick,  by  no 
means  so  hard  to  penetrate  as  the  bush  or  low  scrub 
which  baffled  the  British  troops  in  the  early  Kafir  wars, 
waged  on  the  eastern  border  of  Cape  Colony,  stiU  the 
groimd  is  so  very  rough,  and  the  tumbled  masses  of  rock 
which  He  round  the  foot  of  the  granite  kopjes  afford  so 
many  spots  for  hiding,  that  the  agile  native,  who  knows 
the  ground,  had  a  far  better  chance  against  the  firearms 
of  the  white  men  than  he  would  have  in  the  open  country 
where  the  battles  of  1893  took  place.  Seeing  such  a 
country,  one  can  well  understand  that  it  was  quite  as 
much  by  famine  as  by  fighting  that  the  rising  of  1896 
was  brought  to  an  end. 

From  the  northern  end  of  the  Mangwe  Pass  it  is  over 
forty  miles  to  Bulawayo,  the  goal  of  our  journey,  and  the 
starting-point  for  our  return  journey  to  the  coast  of  the 
Indian  Ocean.  But  Bulawayo  is  too  important  a  place  to 
be  dealt  with  at  the  end  of  a  chapter  already  sufficiently 
long. 


CHAPTER  XV 


FROM  BULAWAYO  TO  FORT  SALISBURY- MAT ABELILAND 
AND  MASHONALAND 

BULAWAYO  means,  in  the  Zulu  tongue,  the  place  of 
slaughter,  and  under  the  sway  of  Lo  Bengula  it  de- 
served its  name.  Just  sixty  years  ago  Mosilikatze,  chief 
of  the  Matabili,  driven  out  of  what  is  now  the  Transvaal 
Republic  by  the  Dutch  Boers  who  had  emigrated  from  Cape 
Colony,  fled  four  hundred  mUes  to  the  northwest  and  feU 
like  a  sudden  tempest  upon  the  Makalakas  and  other  feeble 
tribes  who  pastured  their  cattle  in  this  remote  region. 
His  tribe  was  not  large,  but  every  man  was  a  tried  war- 
rior. The  Makalakas  were  slaughtered  or  chased  away  or 
reduced  to  slavery,  and  when  Mosilikatze  died  in  1870,  his 
son  Lo  Bengula  succeeded  to  the  most  powerful  kingdom 
in  South  Africa  after  that  of  Cetewayo,  chief  of  the  Zulus. 
Of  the  native  town  which  grew  up  round  the  king's  kraal 
there  is  now  not  a  trace— all  was  destroyed  in  1893.  The 
kraal  itself,  which  Lo  Bengula  fired  when  he  fled  away, 
has  gone,  and  only  one  old  tree  marks  the  spot  where  the 
king  used  to  sit  administering  justice  to  his  siibjects.  A 
large  part  of  this  justice  consisted  in  decreeing  death  to 
those  among  his  indunas  or  other  prominent  men  who 
had  excited  his  suspicions  or  whose  cattle  he  desired  to 

223 


224 


IMPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


appropriate.  Sometimes  he  had  them  denounced—  "  smelt 
out,"  they  called  it— by  the  witch-doctors  as  guilty  of 
practising  magic  against  him.  Sometimes  he  dispensed 
with  a  pretext,  and  sent  a  messenger  to  the  hut  of  the 
doomed  man  to  tell  him  the  king  wanted  him.  The 
victim,  sometimes  ignorant  of  his  fate,  walked  in  front, 
while  the  executioner,  following  close  behind,  suddenly 
dealt  him  with  the  linob-Jcerry,  or  heavy-ended  stick,  one 
tremendous  blow,  which  crushed  his  skull  and  left  him 
dead  upon  the  ground.  Women,  on  the  other  hand,  were 
strangled.  ^  No  one  disputed  the  despot's  will,  for  the 
MatabUi,  like  other  Zulus,  show  to  theii*  king  the  absolute 
submission  of  soldiers  to  their  general,  whUe  the  less 
martial  tribes,  such  as  the  Beehuanas  and  Basutos,  obey 
the  chief  only  when  he  has  the  sentiment  of  the  tribe  be- 
hind him.  One  thing,  however,  the  king  could  not  do. 
He  owned  a  large  part  of  all  the  cattle  of  the  tribe,  and  he 
assumed  the  power  to  grant  concessions  to  dig  for  miner- 
als. But  the  land  belonged  to  the  whole  tribe  by  right  of 
conquest,  and  he  had  no  power  to  alienate  it. 

Moved  by  the  associations  of  the  ancient  capital,  Mr. 
Rhodes  directed  the  residence  of  the  Administrator,  Gov- 
ernment House,  as  it  is  called,  to  be  built  on  the  site  of 
Lo  Bengula's  kraal.    But  the  spot  was  not  a  convenient 

^  A  singular  story  was  told  me  regarding  the  death  of  Lo  Bengula's 
sister.  She  had  enjoyed  great  influence  with  him,  but  when  he  took  to 
wife  the  two  daughters  of  Gungunhana,the  great  chief  (of  Zulu  stock) 
who  lived  to  the  eastward  beyond  the  Sabi  River,  she  resented  so 
bitterly  the  precedence  accorded  to  them  as  to  give  the  king  con- 
stant annoyance.  At  last,  after  several  warnings,  he  told  her  that 
if  she  persisted  ia  making  herself  disagreeable  he  would  have  her 
put  to  death.  Having  consulted  the  prophet  of  the  Matoppo  Hills, 
who  told  her  she  would  be  killed,  she  cheerfully  accepted  this  way 
out  of  the  difficulty,  and  was  accordingly  sent  away  and  strangled. 


FEOM  BULAWAYO  TO  FORT  SALISBURY  225 

one  for  the  creation  of  a  European  town,  for  it  was  a  good 
way  from  any  stream,  and  there  was  believed  to  be  a  valu- 
able gold-reef  immediately  under  it.  Accordingly,  a  new 
site  was  chosen,  on  somewhat  lower  ground,  about  two 
miles  to  the  southwest.  Here  new  Bulawayo  stands,  hav- 
ing risen  with  a  rapidity  rivaling  that  of  a  mining-camp 
in  western  America.  The  site  has  no  natural  beauty,  for 
the  landscape  is  didl,  with  nothing  to  relieve  its  monoto- 
nous lines  except  the  hill  of  Tsaba  Induna,  about  fifteen 
miles  distant  to  the  east.  The  hill  on  which  the  town 
stands,  sloping  gently  to  the  south,  is  bare,  dusty,  and 
wind-swept,  like  the  country  all  round.  However,  the 
gum-trees,  planted  in  the  beginning  of  1894,  when  the 
streets  were  laid  out,  have  already  shot  up  to  twelve  or 
fifteen  feet  in  height  and  begin  to  give  some  little  shade. 
Brick  houses  are  rising  here  and  there  among  the  wooden 
shanties  and  the  sheds  of  corrugated  iron.  An  opera- 
house  is  talked  of,  and  already  the  cricket-ground  and 
race-course,  without  which  Englishmen  cannot  be  happy^ 
have  been  laid  out.  Town  lots,  or  "  stands,"  as  they  are 
called  in  South  Africa,  had  gone  up  to  prices  which  noth- 
ing but  a  career  of  swift  and  brilliant  prosperity  could 
justify.  However,  that  prosperity  seemed  to  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Bulawayo  to  be  assured.  Settlers  were  flocking 
in.  Storekeepers  and  hotel-keepers  were  doing  a  roaring 
trade.  Samples  of  ore  were  every  day  being  brought  in 
from  newly  explored  gold-reefs,  and  all  men's  talk  was 
of  pennyweights,  or  even  ounces,  to  the  ton.  Everybody 
was  cheerful,  because  everybody  was  hopeful.  It  was  not 
surprising.  There  is  something  intoxicating  in  the  atmo- 
sphere of  a  perfectly  new  country,  with  its  undeveloped  and 
undefined  possibilities ;  and  the  sudden  acquisition  of  this 
spacious  and  healthful  land,  the  sudden  rise  of  this  English 

15 


226  IMPKESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


town  where  two  years  before  there  had  been  nothing  but 
the  huts  of  squalid  savages,  had  filled  every  one  with  a 
deUglitful  sense  of  the  power  of  civilized  man  to  subju- 
gate the  earth  and  di-aw  from  it  boundless  wealth.  Per- 
haps something  may  also  be  set  down  to  the  climate. 
Bulawayo  is  not  beautiful.  Far  more  attractive  sites 
might  have  been  found  among  the  hills  to  the  south. 
But  it  has  a  deliciously  fresh,  keen,  brilliant  au-,  -with  a 
strong  breeze  tempering  the  sun-heat,  and  no  risk  of  fever. 
Indeed,  nearly  all  this  side  of  Matabililand  is  healthful, 
partly  because  it  has  been  more  thickly  peopled  of  late 
3'^ears  than  the  eastern  side  of  the  country,  which  was 
largely  depopulated  by  the  Matabih  raids. 

Next  to  the  prospects  of  the  gold-reefs  (a  topic  to  which 
I  shall  presently  return),  the  question  in.  which  a  \'isitor 
in  1895  felt  most  interest  was  the  condition  of  the  natives. 
It  seemed  too  much  to  expect  that  a  proud  and  warlike 
race  of  savages  should  suddenly,  within  less  than  two  years 
from  the  overthrow  of  their  king,  have  abandoned  all 
notion  of  resistance  to  the  whites  and  settled  down  as 
peaceable  subjects.  The  whites  were  a  mere  handful 
scattered  over  an  immense  area  of  country,  and  the  white 
police  force  did  not  exceed  foui-  or  five  hundred  men. 
Nevertheless,  the  authorities  of  the  British  South  Afi-ica 
Company  were  of  opinion  that  peace  had  been  finally 
secured,  and  that  no  danger  remained  from  the  natives. 
They  observed  that,  while  the  true  Matabili  (the  so-called 
Abezansi)  who  remained  in  the  country— for  some  had  fled 
down  to  or  across  the  Zambesi  after  the  defeats  of  1893 
— were  comparatively  few  in  number,  the  other  natives, 
mostly  Makalakas,^  were  timid  and  un warlike.    They  held 

1  The  original  inhabitants  of  the  country,  belonging  to  the  tribes 
which  vre,  follovring  the  Portuguese,  call  Makalanga  or  Makalaka,  are 


FROM  BULAWAYO  TO  FORT  SALISBURY  227 


that  when  a  native  tribe  has  been  once  completely  over- 
come in  fight,  it  accepts  the  inevitable  with  submission. 
And  they  dwelt  on  the  fact  that  Lo  Bengula's  tyi*anny 
had  been  a  constant  source  of  terror  to  his  own  subjects. 
After  his  flight  some  of  his  leading  indunas  came  to  Dr. 
Jameson  and  said,  "Now  we  can  sleep."  Their  belief  was 
shared  by  aU  the  Europeans  in  the  country.  English  set- 
tlers dwelt  alone  without  a  shade  of  apprehension  in  farms 
six,  eight,  or  ten  miles  from  another  European.  In  the 
journey  I  am  describing  from  Mafeking  to  Fort  Salisbury, 
over  eight  hundred  miles  of  lonely  country,  my  wife 
and  I  were  accompanied  only  by  my  driver,  a  worthy 
Cape  Dutchman  named  Renske,  and  by  a  native  "  Cape 
boy."  None  of  us  was  armed,  and  no  one  of  the  friends 
we  consulted  as  to  our  trip  even  suggested  that  I  should 
carry  so  much  as  a  revolver,  or  that  the  slightest  risk  was 
involved  in  taking  a  lady  through  the  country.  How  abso- 
lutely secure  the  Administrator  at  Bulawayo  felt  was  shown 
by  his  sending  the  Matabililand  mounted  police  to  Pitsani, 
in  southern  Bechuanaland,  in  November,  leaving  the  coun- 
try denuded  of  any  force  to  keep  order. 

It  is  easy  to  be  wise  after  the  event.  The  confidence  of 
the  Europeans  in  the  submissiveness  of  the  natives  is  now 
seen  to  have  been  ill  founded.  Causes  of  discontent  were 
rife  among  them,  which,  at  fij'st  obscure,  have  now  (1897) 
become  pretty  clear.  Two  of  these  causes  were  already 
known  at  the  time  of  my  visit,  though  their  seriousness 
was  underestimated.    In  Mashonaland  the  natives  dis- 

called  by  the  Matabili  (themselves  Zulus)  Masweni.  The  name  Ma- 
holi,  often  also  applied  to  them,  is  said  to  mean  "outsiders,"  i.  e., 
non-Zulus.  Though  many  had  been  drafted  as  boys  into  the  Mata- 
bili regiments,  and  others  were  used  as  slaves,  many  more  dwelt  in 
the  countiy  west  and  northwest  of  Bulawayo,  besides  those  who 
form  the  population  of  Mashonaland,  to  tho  east. 


228 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  ATRICA 


liked  the  tax  of  ten  shillings  for  each  hut,  which  there, 
as  in  the  Transvaal  Republic,^  they  have  been  required 
to  pay ;  and  they  complained  that  it  was  apt  to  fall  heavily 
on  the  industrious  Kafir,  because  the  idle  one  escaped, 
having  nothing  that  could  be  taken  in  payment  of  it. 
This  tax  was  sometimes  le\T.ed  in  kind,  sometimes  in 
labor,  but  by  preference  in  money  Avhen  the  hut-owner 
had  any  money,  for  the  Company  desired  to  induce  the 
natives  to  earn  wages.  If  he  had  not,  an  ox  was  usually 
taken  in  pledge.  In  Matabililand  many  natives,  I  was 
told,  felt  aggrieved  that  the  Company  had  claimed  the 
ownership  of  and  the  right  to  take  to  itself  all  the  cat- 
tle, as  having  been  the  property  of  Lo  Bengula,  although 
many  of  these  had,  in  fact,  been  left  in  the  hands  of  the 
indunas,  and  a  large  part  were,  in  December,  1895,  distrib- 
uted among  the  natives  as  their  own  property.  Subse- 
quent inquiries  have  shown  that  this  grievance  was  deeply 
and  widel)^  felt.  As  regards  the  land,  there  was  evidently 
the  material  out  of  which  a  grievance  might  grow,  but 
the  grievance  did  not  seem  to  have  yet  actually  arisen. 
The  land  was  being  sold  off  in  farms,  and  natives  squat- 
ting on  a  piece  of  land  so  sold  might  be  required  by  the 
pui'chaser  to  clear  out.  However,  pains  were  taken,  I  was 
told,  to  avoid  including  native  villages  in  any  farm  sold. 
Often  it  would  not  be  for  the  pui-chaser's  interest  to  eject 
the  natives,  because  he  might  get  laborers  among  them, 
and  labor  is  what  is  most  wanted.  Two  native  reserva- 
tions had  been  laid  out,  but  the  poHey  of  the  Company 
was  to  keep  the  natives  scattered  about  among  the  whites 

1  A  hut  is  usually  allotted  to  each  -wife,  and  thus  this  impost  falls 
heavily  on  the  polygamist  chief,  being,  in  fact,  a  tax  upon  luxuries. 
I  was  told  that  in  the  Transvaal  some  of  the  rich  natives  were  trying 
to  escape  it  by  putting  two  wives  in  the  same  hut. 


FEOM  BULAWAYO  TO  FORT  SALISBURY  229 


rather  than  mass  them  in  the  reservations.  Under  Lo 
Bengiila  there  had  been  no  such  thing  as  private  ownership 
of  land.  The  land  was  "nationalized,"  and  no  individual 
Kafir  was  deemed  to  have  any  permanent  and  exclusive 
right  even  to  the  piece  of  it  which  he  might  be  at  the 
time  cultivating.  While  he  actually  did  cultivate  he  was 
not  disturbed,  for  the  simple  reason  that  there  was  far 
more  land  than  the  people  Goxdd  or  would  cultivate.  The 
natives,  although  they  tUl  the  soil,  are  still  half -nomads. 
They  often  shift  their  villages,  and  even  when  the  village 
remains  they  seldom  cultivate  the  same  patch  for  long 
together.  Though  Europeans  had  been  freely  buying  the 
land,  they  bought  largely  to  hold  for  a  rise  and  sell  again, 
and  comparatively  few  of  the  farms  bought  had  been  actu- 
ally stocked  with  cattle,  while,  of  course,  the  parts  under 
tillage  were  a  mere  trifle.  Hence  there  did  not  seem  to  have 
been  as  yet  any  pressure  iipon  the  natives,  who,  thoiigh 
they  vastly  outnumber  the  Europeans,  are  very  few  in  pro- 
portion to  the  size  of  the  country.  I  doubt  if  in  the  whole 
territory  of  the  Company  south  of  the  Zambesi  River 
there  are  800,000.  To  these  possible  sources  of  trouble 
there  was  added  one  now  perceived  to  have  been  still 
graver.  Native  labor  was  needed  not  only  for  public 
works,  but  by  private  persons  for  mining  operations.  As 
the  number  of  Kafirs  who  came  willingly  was  insufficient, 
the  indunas  were  required  to  furnish  stout  young  men  to 
work,  and  according  to  Mr.  Selous,i  who  was  then  living 

1  See  his  book,  published  in  the  end  of  1896,  entitled  "  Sunshine 
and  Storm  in  Rhodesia."  I  do  not  gather  from  it  how  far,  in  his 
opinion,  what  went  on  was  known  to  the  higher  officials.  It  seems 
clear  that  no  ordinance  was  ever  issued  by  the  Company  permitting 
compulsory  labor. 

Since  the  above  lines  were  written  a  report  by  Sir  Richard  Martin 

15* 


230 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


in  the  country,  force  had  often  to  be  used  to  bring  them 
in.  Good  wages  were  given;  but  the  regulations  were 
ii-ksome,  and  the  native  police,  who  were  often  employed 
to  bring  in  the  laborers,  seem  to  have  abused  their  pow- 
ers. To  the  genuiae  Matabili,  who  lived  only  for  war 
and  plunder,  and  had  been  accustomed  to  despise  the 
other  tribes,  work  was  not  only  distasteful,  but  degrading. 
They  had  never  been  really  subdued.  In  1893  they  hid 
away  most  of  the  firearms  they  possessed,  hoping  to  use 
them  again.  Now,  when  their  discontent  had  increased,  two 
events  hastened  an  outbreak.  One  was  the  departure  of 
the  white  police.  Only  forty- four  were  left  in  MatabUiland 
to  keep  order.  The  other  was  the  appearance  of  a  frightful 
murrain  among  the  cattle,  which  made  it  necessary  for 
the  Company  to  order  the  slaughter  even  of  healthy  ani- 
mals in  order  to  stop  the  progress  of  the  contagion.  The 
plague  had  come  slowly  down  through  German  and  Por- 
tuguese East  Africa,  propagated,  it  is  said,  by  the  Avild  ani- 
mals, especially  buffaloes.  Some  kinds  of  wild  game  are 
as  liable  to  it  as  domesticated  oxen  are,  and  on  the  Upper 
Zambesi  in  September,  1896,  so  large  a  part  of  the  game 
had  died  that  the  lions,  mad  with  hunger,  were  prowling 
round  the  native  kraals  and  making  it  dangerous  to  pass 
from  village  to  village.  This  new  and  unlooked-for  ca- 
lamity created  a  ferment  in  the  minds  of  the  natives.  The 
slaughter  of  their  cattle  seemed  to  them  an  act  of  injustice. 
Just  when  they  were  terrified  at  this  calamity  (which,  it  was 
reported,  had  been  sent  up  among  them  by  Lo  Bengula 
or  his  ghost,  from  the  banks  of  the  Zambesi)  and  incensed 

has  been  presented  to  the  British  Parliament,  in  which  he  states  that 
although  there  was  no  regulation  allowing  forced  labor,  force  was, 
in  fact,  used  to  bring  the  natives  from  their  ki-aals  to  work.  The 
Company  in  a  replj'  which  they  have  published  do  not  admit  this. 


FROM  BULAWAYO  TO  FORT  SALISBURY  231 

at  this  apparent  injustice,  coming  on  the  top  of  their  pre- 
vious visitation,  the  news  of  the  defeat  and  surrender  of  the 
Company's  police  force  in  the  Transvaal  spread  among 
them.  They  saw  the  white  government  defenseless,  and 
its  head,  Dr.  Jameson,  whose  kindliness  had  impressed 
those  who  knew  him  personally,  no  longer  among  them. 
Then,  under  the  incitements  of  a  prophet,  came  the  revolt. 

This,  however,  is  a  digression.  In  October,  1895,  we 
traveled,  unarmed  and  unconcerned,  by  night  as  well  as 
by  day,  through  villages  where  five  months  later  the  Ka- 
firs rose  and  murdered  everj"-  European  within  reach.  So 
entirely  unsuspected  was  the  already  simmering  disaf- 
fection. 

The  native  question  which  occupied  Bulawayo  in  Sep- 
tember, 1895,  was  that  native-labor  question  which,  in  one 
form  or  another,  is  always  present  to  South  African  minds. 
AU  hard  labor,  aU  rough  and  unskilled  labor,  is,  and,  ow- 
ing to  the  heat  of  the  climate  as  well  as  the  scarcity  of 
white  men,  must  be,  done  by  blacks,  and  in  a  new  coun- 
try like  Matabililand  the  blacks  do  not  want  to  do  it, 
and  are  especially  averse  to  working  under  gi'ound. 
They  are  only  beginning  to  use  money,  and  they  do 
not  want  the  things  which  money  buys.  The  wants  of  a 
native  living  with  his  tribe  and  cultivating  mealies  or  Kafir 
corn  are  confined  to  a  kaross  (skin  cloak)  or  some  pieces  of 
cotton  cloth.  The  prospect  of  leaving  his  tribe  to  go  and 
work  in  a  mine,  in  order  that  he  may  earn  wages  where- 
with he  can  buy  things  he  has  no  use  for,  does  not  at  once 
appeal  to  him.  The  white  men,  anxious  to  get  to  work  on 
the  gold-reefs,  are  annoyed  at  what  they  call  the  stupidity 
and  laziness  of  the  native,  and  usually  clamor  for  legis- 
lation to  compel  the  natives  to  come  and  work,  adding,  of 
course,  that  regular  labor  would  be  the  best  thing  in  the 


232 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


world  for  tlie  natives.  Some  go  so  far  as  to  wish  to  compel 
them  to  work  at  a  fixed  rate  of  wages,  suflBcient  to  leave  a 
good  profit  tor  the  employer.  Others  go  even  further,  and 
as  experience  has  shown  that  the  native  does  not  fear  im- 
prisonment as  a  penalty  for  leaving  his  work,  desire  the 
infliction  of  another  punishment  which  he  does  fear — 
that  is,  the  lash.  Such  demands  are  fitter  for  Spaniards 
in  the  sixteenth  century  than  for  Englishmen  in  the  nine- 
teenth. The  difficulty  of  getting  labor  is  incident  to  a  new 
country,  and  must  be  borne  with.  In  German  East  Africa 
it  has  been  so  much  felt  that  the  Administrator  of  that 
region  has  proposed  to  import  Indian  labor,  as  the  sugar- 
planters  of  Natal  and  as  those  of  Trinidad  and  Demerara 
in  the  West  Indies  have  already  done.  But  it  is  to  some 
extent  a  transitory  difficulty.  The  mines  at  Kimberley 
succeed  in  drawing  plenty  of  native  labor ;  so  do  the  mines 
on  the  Witwatersrand ;  so  in  time  the  mine-owners  in 
Matabililand  may  hope  to  do  also.  They  must,  however, 
be  prepared,  untU  a  regular  afflux  of  laborers  has  been  set 
up,  to  offer,  as  the  Kimberley  people  do,  wages  far  in  ex- 
cess of  what  the  Kafirs  could  possibly  earn  among  their 
own  people,  in  order  to  overcome  the  distaste  of  the  native 
— a  very  natural  distaste,  due  to  centuries  of  indolence  in 
a  hot  climate— to  any  hard  and  contiuuous  toil.  This  is  no 
great  compensation  to  make  to  those  whose  land  they  have 
taken  and  whose  primitive  way  of  life  they  have  broken  up 
and  forever  destroyed.  But  once  the  habit  of  coming  to 
work  for  wages  has  been  established  in  these  northern  re- 
gions,— and  it  need  not  take  many  years  to  estabhsh  it, — 
the  mining  companies  will  have  no  great  difficulty  in  get- 
ting as  much  labor  as  they  want,  and  wiU.  not  be  obliged, 
as  they  now  are,  to  try  to  arrange  with  a  chief  for  the 
despatch  of  some  of  his  "boys." 


FROM  BULAWAYO  TO  FORT  SALISBURY  233 

Bulawayo  is  the  point  from  which  one  starts  to  visit  the 
Victoria  Falls  on  the  Zambesi,  the  only  very  grand  natural 
object  which  South  Africa  has  to  show.  The  expedition, 
however,  is  a  much  longer  one  than  a  glance  at  the  map 
would  suggest.  Owing  to  the  prevalence  of  the  tsetse-fly  in 
the  valley  of  the  gi'eat  river,  one  cannot  take  oxen  with- 
out the  prospect  of  losing  them,  and  must  therefore  travel 
on  foot  or  with  donkeys.  The  want  of  a  wagon  makes 
camping  out  much  more  troublesome  and  involves  a  large 
force  of  native  porters.  Thus  elaborate  preparations  are 
needed,  and  though  the  distance,  as  the  crow  flies,  from 
Bulawayo  to  the  Falls  is  only  some  two  hundred  miles,  at 
least  six  weeks  are  needed  for  the  trip,  a  space  of  time  we 
could  not  spare. 

I  have  described  in  the  last  chapter  the  route  from  Cape 
Town  to  the  capital  of  Matabililand  which  persons  coming 
from  England  would  naturally  take.  It  is  not,  however, 
by  any  means  the  shortest  route  to  the  sea,  and  it  is  there- 
fore not  the  route  along  which  the  bulk  of  the  European 
trade  is  likely  in  future  to  pass.  From  Cape  Town  to 
Bulawayo  it  is  thirteen  hundred  and  eighty  miles ;  but 
from  Bulawayo  to  the  port  of  Beira,  on  the  Indian  Ocean, 
it  is  only  six  hundred  and  fifty  miles  via  Fort  Salisbury 
and  Mtali,  and  wiU  be  only  about  five  hundred  if  a  more 
direct  railway  line  should  ever  be  laid  out.  I  propose  to 
take  the  reader  back  to  the  sea  at  Beira  by  this  Fort  Salis- 
bury and  Mtali  route,  and  in  following  it  he  will  learn 
something  about  Mashonaland  and  the  mountains  which 
form  the  boundary  between  British  and  Portuguese 
territory. 

Bulawayo  is  distant  from  Fort  Salisbury  two  hundred 
and  eighty  miles.  The  journey  takes  by  coach  four  days 
and  four  nights,  traveling  night  and  day,  with  only  short 


234 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


halts  for  meals.  An  ox-wagon  accomplishes  it  in  about 
three  weeks.  The  track  runs  nearly  all  the  way  along  high 
ground,  open,  breezy,  and  generally  healthful,  but  seldom 
picturesque.  It  is  a  land  of  rolling  downs,  the  tops  of 
which  are  covered  with  thin  grass,  while  better  pastures, 
and  sometimes  woods  also,  are  found  in  the  valleys  of  the 
streams  and  on  the  lower  slopes  of  the  hills.  The  fii'st 
part  of  the  way,  from  Bulawayo  to  the  little  town  of 
Gwelo,  is  rather  dull.  One  crosses  the  Bimbezi  River, 
where  the  Matabih  were  finally  overthrown  in  the  war  of 
1893,  and  the  Shangani  ^  River,  where  they  suffered  their 
first  defeat.  The  Company's  force  was  advancing  along 
the  high,  open  ground  to  attack  Bulawayo,  and  the  native 
army  met  them  on  the  road.  Both  battle-fields  are  bare 
and  open,  and  one  wonders  at  the  foUy  of  the  natives  who 
advanced  over  such  gi'ound,  exposed  to  the  rifle-fire  and  the 
still  more  deadly  Maxim  guns  of  the  invaders.  Armed 
in  large  part  only  with  assagais,  they  were  mown  down 
before  they  could  even  reach  the  front  of  the  British  Une, 
and  their  splendid  courage  made  their  destruction  aU 
the  more  complete.  Had  they  stuck  to  the  rocky  and 
woody  regions  they  might  have  made  the  war  a  far  longer 
and  more  troublesome  business  than  it  proved  to  be.  No 
stone  marks  either  battle-field. 

From  a  spot  between  the  two  rivers  we  turned  off  to 
the  south  to  visit  the  prehistoric  remains  at  Dhlodhlo.  It 
was  an  extremely  lonely  track,  on  which  we  did  not  meet 
a  human  being  for  some  thirty  miles.  No  house,  not  even 
a  Kafir  hut,  was  to  be  found,  so  we  bivouacked  in  the  veldt, 
to  the  lee  of  a  clump  of  thorn-bushes.    The  earlier  part  of 

1  The  Shangani  is  here  a  very  small  stream.  It  was  far  away  to 
the  north,  on  the  lower  course  of  the  same  stream,  that  Major  "Wilson 
and  his  party  perished  later  in  the  war. 


FROM  BULAWAYO  TO  FOET  SALISBURY  235 

the  nights  is  delightful  at  this  season  (late  spring),  but  it 
is  apt  to  get  cold  between  2  and  4  a.  m.,  and  as  there  is 
usually  a  southeast  wind  blowing,  the  shelter  of  a  bush  or 
an  ant-hiU  is  not  unwelcome.  Whoever  enjoys  traveling 
at  all  cannot  but  enjoy  such  a  night  alone  under  the  stars. 
One  gathers  sticks  to  make  the  fire,  and  gets  to  know 
which  wood  burns  best.  One  considers  how  the  scanty 
supply  of  water  which  the  wagon  carries  may  be  most 
thriftily  used  for  making  the  soup,  boiling  the  eggs,  and 
brewing  the  tea.  One  listens  (we  listened  in  vain)  for  the 
roar  of  a  distant  lion  or  the  stiLL  less  melodious  voice  of  the 
hyena.  The  brilliance  of  the  stars  is  such  that  only  the 
fatigue  of  the  long  day —for  one  must  always  start  by  or  be- 
fore sunrise  to  spare  the  animals  during  the  sultry  noon — 
and  the  difficulty  of  sitting  down  in  a  great,  bare,  flat  land, 
where  there  is  not  a  large  stone  and  seldom  even  a  tree, 
can  drive  one  into  the  vehicle  to  sleep.  The  meals,  con- 
sisting of  tinned  meat  and  biscuits,  with  eggs  and  some- 
times a  small,  lean,  and  desiccated  chicken,  are  very  scanty 
and  very  monotonous,  but  the  air  is  so  dry  and  fresh  and 
bracing  that  one  seems  to  find  meat  and  drink  in  it. 

Next  day  we  came,  at  the  foot  of  the  Matoppo  HiUs,  to 
a  solitary  farm,  where  we  found  a  bright  young  English- 
man, who,  with  only  one  white  companion,  had  established 
himself  in  this  wilderness  and  was  raising  good  crops  on 
fields  to  which  he  brought  water  from  a  neighboring 
streamlet.  Even  the  devastation  wrought  by  a  blight  of 
locusts  had  not  dispirited  him  nor  diminished  his  faith  in 
the  country.  It  is  not  the  least  of  the  pleasures  of  such  a 
journey  that  one  finds  so  many  cheery,  hearty,  sanguine 
young  fellows  scattered  about  this  country,  some  of  them 
keeping  or  helping  to  keep  stores,  some  of  them,  like  our 
friend  here,  showing  what  the  soil  may  be  made  to  do  with 


236 


IMPEESSIOXS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


skill  and  perseverance,  and  how  homes  may  be  reared  npon 
it.  One  is  always  hospitably  received ;  one  often  finds  in 
the  hard-working  pioneer  or  the  youth  behind  the  store 
counter  a  cultivated  and  thoughtful  mind ;  one  has,  per- 
haps, a  glimpse  of  an  attractive  personality  developing 
itself  under  simple  yet  severe  conditions,  fitted  to  bring  out 
the  real  force  of  a  man.  After  half  an  hour's  talk  you  part 
as  if  you  were  parting  with  an  old  friend,  yet  knowing  that 
the  same  roof  is  not  likely  ever  to  cover  both  of  you  again. 
There  are,  of  course,  rough  and  ill-omened  explorers  and 
settlers  in  South  Africa,  as  in  other  new  countries;  but 
having  wandered  a  good  deal,  in  different  eovmtries,  on  the 
outer  edge  of  civilization,  I  was  struck  by  the  large  pro- 
portion of  well-mannered  and  well-educated  men  whom 
one  came  across  in  this  tropical  wilderness. 

From  the  young  Englishman's  farm  we  turned  in  among 
the  hills,  following  the  course  of  the  brook,  and  gently 
rising  till  we  reached  a  height  from  which  a  superb  \iew 
to  the  north  unrolled  itself.  The  country  was  charming, 
quite  unlike  the  dull  brown  downs  of  yesterday.  On  each 
side  were  steep  hills,  sometimes  rocky,  sometimes  covered 
thick  with  wood ;  between  them  in  the  valley  a  succession 
of  smooth,  grassy  glades,  each  circled  round  by  trees.  It 
was  rui-al  scenery — scenery  in  which  one  could  wish  to 
build  a  cottage  and  dwell  therein,  or  in  which  a  pastoral 
drama  might  be  laid.  There  was  nothing  to  suggest  Eu- 
rope, for  the  rocks  and,  stUl  more,  the  trees  were  thor- 
oughly African  in  character,  and  the  air  even  drier  and 
keener  than  that  of  Spain.  But  the  landscape  was  one 
which  any  lover  of  English  country  might  have  come  to 
love,  and  some  day,  when  there  are  large  towns  in  Mata- 
bililand,  and  plenty  of  Englishmen  h\dng  in  them,  the 
charm  of  these  hills  will  be  appreciated.    The  valley 


FROM  BULAWAYO  TO  FORT  SALISBURY  237 

rises  at  last  to  a  grassy  table-land,  where,  on  a  boss  of 
granite  rock,  stand  the  ancient  walls  of  Dhlodhlo,  which 
we  had  come  to  see.  I  have  already  described  the  ruins 
(see  Chapter  IX),  which  are  scanty  enough,  and  inter- 
esting, not  fi"om  any  beauty  they  possess,  but  because  we 
have  so  few  data  for  guessing  at  their  purpose  or  the  race 
that  built  them.  The  country  is  now  very  solitary,  and 
the  natives  fear  to  approach  the  ruins,  especially  at  night, 
believing  them  to  be  haunted.  Having  spent  some  hours 
in  examining  them,  we  were  just  starting  when  a  swarm 
of  locusts  passed,  the  first  we  had  seen.  It  is  a  strange 
sight,  beautiful  if  you  can  forget  the  destruction  it  brings 
with  it.  The  whole  air,  to  twelve  or  even  eighteen  feet 
above  the  ground,  is  filled  with  the  insects,  reddish  brown 
in  body,  with  bright,  gauzy  wings.  When  the  sun's  rays 
catch  them  it  is  like  the  sea  sparkling  with  light.  When 
you  see  them  against  a  cloud  they  are  like  the  dense  flakes 
of  a  driving  snow-storm.  You  feel  as  if  you  had  never 
before  realized  immensity  in  number.  Vast  crowds  of 
men  gathered  at  a  festival,  countless  tree-tops  rising  along 
the  slope  of  a  forest  ridge,  the  chimneys  of  London  houses 
from  the  top  of  St.  Paul's,— aU  are  as  nothing  to  the  myr- 
iads of  insects  that  blot  out  the  sun  above  and  cover  the 
ground  beneath  and  fill  the  air  whichever  way  one  looks. 
The  breeze  carries  them  swiftly  past,  but  they  come  on 
in  fresh  clouds,  a  host  of  which  there  is  no  end,  each  of 
them  a  harmless  creature  which  you  can  catch  and  crush 
in  your  hand,  but  appalling  in  their  power  of  collective 
devastation.  Yet  here  in  southern  MatabUiland  there  had 
been  only  a  few  swarms.  We  were  to  see  later  on,  in  the 
eastern  mountain  region,  far  more  terrible  evidences  of 
their  presence. 

From  Dhlodhlo  we  drove  to  the  store  on  the  Shangani 


238 


mPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


River,  a  distance  of  twentj'^  miles  or  more,  right  over  the 
open  veldt,  finding  our  way,  with  the  aid  of  a  native  boy, 
over  stony  hills  and  thick  shrubs,  and  even  here  and  there 
across  marshy  stream  beds,  in  a  way  which  astonishes  the 
European  accustomed  to  think  that  roads,  or  at  least  beaten 
tracks,  are  essential  to  four-wheeled  vehicles.  I  have 
driven  ui  an  open  cart  across  the  central  watershed  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains ;  but  the  country  there,  rough  as  it  is, 
is  as  a  paved  road  compared  with  some  parts  of  the  veldt 
over  which  the  South  African  guides  his  team.  Once  or 
twice  we  missed  the  way  in  the  deepening  twilight,  and 
began  to  prepare  ourselves  for  another  night  under  the 
stars,  with  a  nearly  exhausted  food-supply.  But  at  last, 
just  as  darkness  fell,  we  reached  a  native  village,  and  ob- 
tained (with  difficulty)  a  native  guide  for  the  last  few 
miles  of  the  drive.  These  miles  were  lighted  by  a  succes- 
sion of  grass-fii'es.  Such  fires  are  much  commoner  here 
than  in  the  prairies  of  western  America,  and,  happUy, 
much  less  dangerous,  for  the  grass  is  usually  short  and 
the  fire  moves  slowly.  They  are  sometimes  accidental,  but 
more  frequently  hghted  by  the  natives  for  the  sake  of  get- 
ting a  fresh  growth  of  young  grass  on  the  part  burned  and 
thereby  attracting  the  game.  Sometimes  the  cause  is  even 
slighter.  The  Kafirs  are  fond  of  eating  the  mice  and  other 
smaU  inhabitants  of  the  veldt,  and  they  fire  the  grass  to 
frighten  these  little  creatures,  and  catch  them  before  they 
can  reach  their  holes,  with  the  further  convenience  of  hav- 
ing them  ready  roasted.  Thus  at  this  season  nearly  half 
the  land  on  these  downs  is  charred,  and  every  night  one 
sees  the  glow  of  a  fire  somewhere  in  the  distance.  The 
practice  strikes  a  stranger  as  a  wasteful  one,  exhausting  to 
the  soil,  and  calculated  to  stunt  the  trees,  because,  though 
the  grass  is  too  short  to  make  the  fire  strong  enough  to  kill 


FROM  BULAWAYO  TO  FORT  SALISBURY  239 

a  well-grown  tree,  it  is  quite  able  to  injure  the  younger 
ones  and  prevent  them  from  ever  reaching  their  due  pro- 
portions. 

The  term  "  store,"  which  I  have  just  used,  requires  some 
explanation.  There  are,  of  course,  no  inns  in  the  country, 
except  in  the  three  or  four  tiny  towns.  Outside,  sleeping 
quarters  are  to  be  had  only  in  small  native  huts,  built  round 
a  sort  of  primitive  "  general  shop  "  which  some  trader  has 
established  to  supply  the  wants  of  those  who  live  within 
fifty  miles  or  who  pass  along  the  road.  The  hut  is  of 
clay,  with  a  roof  of  thatch,  which  makes  it  cooler  than  the 
store  with  its  roof  of  galvanized  iron.  White  ants  are 
usually  at  work  upon  the  clay  walls,  sending  down  little 
showers  of  dust  upon  the  sleeper.  Each  hut  contains  two 
rough  wooden  frames,  across  which  there  is  stretched,  to 
make  a  bed,  a  piece  of  coarse  linen  or  ticking.  Prudent 
people  turn  back  the  dirty  rug  or  bit  of  old  blanket  which 
covers  the  bed,  and  cast  a  glance  upon  the  clay  floor  to  see 
that  no  venomous  snake  is  already  in  possession.  Such 
night  quarters  may  seem  unattractive,  but  we  had  many 
a  good  night's  rest  in  them.  When  they  are  unattainable, 
one  camps  out. 

From  the  Shangani  River  to  Gwelo  the  track  leads  again 
over  a  succession  of  huge,  swelling  ridges,  separated  from 
one  another  by  the  valleys  of  spruits,  or  streams,  now 
nearly  dry,  but  in  the  wet  season  running  full  and  strong. 
The  descent  to  the  sprviit,  which  is  often  a  short,  steep 
pitch  and  is  then  called  a  donga,  needs  careful  driving,  and 
the  ascent  up  the  opposite  bank  is  for  a  heavy  wagon  a 
matter  of  great  difficulty.  We  passed  wagons  hardly  ad- 
vancing a  step,  though  eight  or  nine  span  of  oxen  were 
tugging  at  them,  and  sometimes  saw  two  or  three  span 
detached  from  another  team  and  attached  to  the  one  which 


240 


mPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


had  failed,  unaided,  to  mount  the  slope.  No  wonder  that, 
when  the  difficulty  of  bringing  up  machinery  is  so  great, 
impatient  mine-owners  long  for  the  railway. 

The  first  sign  that  we  were  close  upon  Gwelo  came  from 
the  sight  of  a  number  of  white  men  in  shirt-sleeves  running 
across  a  meadow— an  unusual  sight  iu  South  Africa,  which 
presently  explained  itself  as  the  English  inhabitants  en- 
gaged in  a  cricket  match.  Nearly  the  whole  town  was 
either  playing  or  looking  on.  It  was  a  hot  afternoon,  but 
our  energetic  countrj^men  were  not  to  be  scared  by  the  sun 
from  the  pursuit  of  the  national  game.  They  are  as 
much  Englishmen  in  Africa  as  in  England,  and,  happily 
for  them  and  for  their  country,  there  is  no  part  of  the 
national  character  that  is  more  useful  when  transplanted 
than  the  fondness  for  active  exercise.  Gwelo,  a  cheerful 
little  place,  though  it  stands  in  a  rather  bleak  country, 
with  a  wooded  ridge  a  little  way  off  to  the  south,  interested 
me  as  a  specimen  of  the  newest  kind  of  settlement.  It  is 
not  in  strictness  a  mining  camp,  for  there  are  no  reefs  in 
the  immediate  neighborhood,  but  a  mining  center,  which 
proposes  to  live  as  the  local  metropolis  of  a  gold-bearing 
district,  a  place  of  supply  and  seat  of  local  administration. 
In  October,  1895,  it  had  about  fifteen  houses  inhabited  by 
Europeans,  and  perhaps  thirty  houses  altogether ;  but  the 
materials  for  building  other  houses  were  already  on  the 
ground,  and  the  usual  symptoms  of  a  "  boom "  were  dis- 
cernible. Comparing  it  with  the  many  similar  ''new 
cities  "  I  had  seen  in  western  America,  I  was  much  struck 
with  the  absence  of  the  most  conspicuous  features  of  those 
cities— the  "  saloons"  and  "bars."  In  California  or  Mon- 
tana these  establishments,  in  which  the  twin  deities  of 
gambling  and  drinking  are  worshiped  with  equal  devotion, 
form  half  the  houses  of  a  recent  settlement  in  a  mining 


FEOM  BULAWAYO  TO  PORT  SALISBURY  241 

region.  In  South  Africa,  except  at  and  near  Johannes- 
burg, one  scarcely  sees  them.  Some  drinking,  of  course, 
there  is  at  stores  and  hotels,  but  it  rarely  obtrudes  itself. 
What  gambling  there  may  be  I  know  not,  but  at  any  rate 
there  are  no  gambling-saloons.  Nothing  can  be  more  de- 
corous than  the  aspect  of  these  new  African  towns,  and 
the  conduct  of  the  inhabitants  seldom  belies  the  aspect. 
There  is,  of  course,  a  free  use  of  alcohol.  But  there  is  no 
shooting,  such  as  goes  on  in  American  mining  towns : 
crimes  of  violence  of  any  kind  are  extremely  rare ;  and 
the  roads  are  safe.  No  one  dreams  of  taking  the  precau- 
tions against  "  road-agents "  (i.  e.,  highwaymen)  which 
are  still  far  from  superfluous  in  the  Western  States  and 
were  far  from  superfluous  in  Australia.  Trains  are  not 
stopped  and  robbed ;  coaches  are  not  "  held  up."  Nothing 
surprised  me  more,  next  to  the  apparent  submissiveness 
of  the  native  Kafirs,  than  the  order  which  appeared  to 
prevail  among  the  whites.  A  little  reflection  shows  that 
in  this  country,  where  traveHng  is  either  very  slow  or  very 
costly  and  difficult,  malefactors  would  have  few  chances  of 
escape.  But  I  do  not  think  this  is  the  chief  cause  of  the 
orderly  and  law-abiding  habits  of  the  people.  There  have 
never  been  any  traditions  of  violence,  stUl  less  of  crime,  in 
South  Africa,  except  as  against  the  natives.  The  Dutch 
Boers  were  steady,  stolid  people,  little  given  to  thieving  or  to 
killing  one  another.  The  Enghsh  have  carried  with  them 
their  respect  for  law  and  authority.  In  some  respects  their 
ethical  standard  is  not  that  of  the  mother  country.  But 
toward  one  another  and  toward  those  set  in  authority 
over  them  their  attitude  is  generally  correct. 

The  night  we  spent  at  Gwelo  gave  a  curious  instance  of 
the  variability  of  this  cHmate.  The  evening  had  been 
■warm,  but  about  midnight  the  wind  rose,  bringing  a  thin 

16 


242 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


drizzle  of  rain,  aud  next  morning  the  cold  was  that  of 
Boston  or  Edinburgh  in  a  bitter  northeaster.  Having 
fortunatel}'  brought  warm  cloaks  and  overcoats,  we  put 
on  aU  we  had  and  fastened  the  canvas  cui-tains  round  the 
vehicle.  Nevertheless,  we  shivered  aU  day  long,  the  low, 
thick  clouds  raining  at  intervals,  and  the  mahgn  blast 
chilling  one's  bones.  Gwelo,  of  com'se,  declared  that  such 
weather  was  quite  exceptional ;  but  those  can  have  traveled 
little  indeed  who  have  not  remarked  how  often  they  en- 
counter "  exceptional  weather,"  and  Gwelo,  ha\ing  existed 
for  eighteen  months  only,  had  at  best  a  small  experience 
to  faU  back  upon.  The  moral  for  travelers  is :  "  Do  not 
forget  to  take  youi*  furs  and  your  ulsters  to  ti'opical 
South  Africa." 

Some  forty  miles  beyond  Gwelo  there  is  a  mountain 
called  Iron  INline  Hill,  where  the  Mashonas  have  for  genera- 
tions been  wont  to  find  and  work  iron.  AU  or  nearly  all  the 
Kafir  tribes  do  this,  but  the  Mashonas  are  more  skilful  at  it 
than  were  theii-  conquerors  the  Matabili.  Here  a  track  turns 
off  to  the  southeast  to  Fort  Victoria,  the  fii-st  military  post 
established  by  the  Company  in  its  territories,  and  for  a 
time  the  most  important.  It  has  fallen  into  the  back- 
ground lately,  partlj'  because  the  gold-reefs  have  not  realized 
the  hopes  once  formed  of  them,  partly  because  it  suffers 
fi'om  fever  after  the  rains.  I  went  to  it  because  from 
it  one  visits  the  famous  ruins  at  Zimbabwye,  the  most 
curious  relic  of  prehistoric  antiquity  yet  discovered  in 
tropical  Africa.  The  journey,  one  hundred  miles  from 
Iron  ]\Iine  HUl  to  Victoria,  is  not  an  easy  one,  for  there 
are  no  stores  on  the  way  where  either  provisions  or  night- 
quarters  can  be  had,  and  the  track  is  a  bad  one,  being  very 
little  used.  The  country  is  mostly  wooded  and  rather  pretty, 
with  fantastic,  rockj^  hills  rising  here  and  there,  but  pre- 


FKOM  BULAWAYO  TO  FORT  SALISBURY  243 

senting  few  striking  features.  Two  views,  however,  dwell 
in  my  recollection  as  characteristic  of  South  Africa.  We 
had  slept  in  a  rude  hut  on  the  banks  of  the  Shashi  River, 
immediately  beneath  a  rocky  kopje,  and  rose  next  morning 
before  dawn  to  continue  the  journey.  Huge  rocks  piled 
wildly  upon  one  another  rose  above  the  httle  meadow — 
rocks  covered  with  lichens  of  brilliant  hues,  red,  green, 
and  yeUow,  and  glowing  under  the  rays  of  the  level  sun. 
Glossy-leaved  bushes  nestled  in  the  cre^'ices  and  covered 
the  mouths  of  the  dens  to  which  the  leopards  had  retired 
from  their  nocturnal  prowls.  One  tree  stood  out  against 
the  clear  blue  on  the  top  of  the  highest  rock.  Cliff-swal- 
lows darted  and  twittered  about  the  hollows,  while  high 
overhead,  in  the  stUl  morning  air,  two  pairs  of  large  hawks 
sailed  in  wide  circles  round  and  round  the  summit  of  the 
hill.  A  few  miles  farther  the  track  crossed  a  height  from 
which  one  could  gaze  for  thirty  miles  in  every  direction 
over  a  gently  rolling  country  covered  with  wood,  but  with 
broad  stretches  of  pasture  interposed,  whose  grass,  bleached 
to  a  light  yellow,  made  one  think  it  a  mass  of  corn-fields 
whitening  to  harvest.  Out  of  these  woods  and  fields  I'ose 
at  intervals  what  seemed  the  towers  and  spires  of  cities 
set  upon  hiUs.  We  could  have  fancied  ourselves  in  cen- 
tral Italy,  survejdng  from  some  eminence  like  Monte 
Amiata  the  ancient  towns  of  Tuscany  and  Umbria  rising 
on  their  rocky  heights  out  of  chestnut  woods  and  fields 
of  ripening  corn.  But  the  city  towers  were  only  piles  of 
gi'ay  rock,  and  over  the  wide  horizon  there  was  not  a 
sign  of  human  life— only  the  silence  and  loneliness  of  an 
untouched  wilderness. 

From  Fort  Victoria,  where  the  war  of  1893  began  by  a 
raid  of  the  young  Matabili  warriors  upon  the  Mashona 
tribes,  who  were  living  under  the  protection  of  the  Com- 


244:  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


pany,  it  is  seventeen  miles  to  Zimbabwj'e.  The  track  leads 
through  a  pretty  country,  with  alternate  stretches  of  wood 
and  grass,  bold  hiUs  on  either  side,  and  blue  peaked  moun- 
tains in  the  distance.  Crossing  a  low,  bare  ridge  of 
granite,  one  sees  nearly  a  mile  away,  among  thick  trees, 
a  piece  of  gray  wall,  and,  when  one  comes  nearer,  what 
seems  the  top  of  a  tower  just  peering  over  the  edge  of  the 
wall.  This  is  Zimbabwj'^e — a  wall  of  loose  but  weU-trimmed 
and  neatly  fitted  pieces  of  granite  surroimding  an  elliptical 
inclosure ;  within  this  inclosure  other  half -ruined  walls 
overgrown  by  shrubs  and  trees,  and  a  strange,  solid  tower 
or  pUlar  thirty  feet  high,  built,  without  moi-tar,  of  similar 
pieces  of  trimmed  granite.  This  is  aU  that  there  is  to  see. 
One  paces  to  and  fro  within  the  inclosure,  and  measures 
the  width  and  length  of  the  passages  between  the  walls. 
One  climbs  the  great  inclosing  wall  at  a  point  where  part 
of  it  has  been  broken  down,  and  walks  along  the  broad 
top,  picking  one's  way  over  the  stems  of  climbing  shi-ubs, 
which  thrust  themselves  across  the  wall  from  beneath  or 
grow  rooted  in  its  crevices.  One  looks  and  looks  again, 
and  wonders.  But  there  is  nothing  to  show  whether  this 
gray  wall  is  three  centuries  or  thirty  centuries  old.  There 
is  no  architectural  style,  no  decoration  even,  except  a  rudely 
simple  pattern  on  the  outside  of  the  waU  which  faces  the  east ; 
so  there  is  nothing  by  which  one  can  connect  this  temple,  if 
it  is  a  temple,  with  the  buildings  of  any  known  race  or  coun- 
try. In  this  mystery  lies  the  charm  of  the  spot— in  this  and 
in  the  remoteness  and  silence  of  a  country  which  seems  to 
have  been  always  as  it  is  to-day.  One  mark  of  modem 
man,  and  one  only,  is  to  be  seen.  In  the  middle  of  the 
valley,  some  three  hundred  yards  from  the  great  building, 
Mr.  Cecil  Rhodes  has  erected  a  monimient  to  Major  Wilson 
and  the  thirty-seven  troopers  who  fell  with  him  on  the 


PEOM  BULAWAYO  TO  FOET  SALISBURY  245 


Lower  Shangani  River  in  December,  1893,  fighting  gal- 
lantly to  the  last  against  an  overwhelming  force  of  Mata- 
bili.  The  monument  stands  on  an  eminence  surrounded 
by  the  broken  wall  of  some  ancient  stronghold.  It  has 
been  wisely  placed  far  enough  from  the  great  ruin  not  to 
form  an  incongruous  element  in  the  view  of  the  latter,  and 
it  was  an  imaginative  thought  to  commemorate,  at  a  spot 
in  this  new  land  which  bears  witness  to  a  race  of  prehis- 
toric conquerors,  the  most  striking  incident  in  the  history 
of  the  latest  conquest. 

We  climbed  the  rocky  height,  where  the  skilfuUy  con- 
structed walls  of  the  ancient  fort  show  that  those  who 
buUt  Zimbabwye  lived  in  fear  of  enemies.  We  sat  beside 
the  spring,  a  clear  though  not  copious  one,  which  rises  a 
little  to  the  south  of  the  great  building  from  a  fissure  in 
the  rock.  Fountains  so  clear  are  rare  in  this  country,  and 
the  existence  of  this  one  probably  determined  the  site  of 
the  great  building  itself.  It  flows  into  a  smaU  pool  and  is 
then  lost,  being  too  small  to  form  a  rivulet.  No  trace  of 
man's  hand  is  seen  roimd  it  or  on  the  margin  the  pool, 
but  those  who  worshiped  in  the  temple  of  Zimbabwye 
doubtless  worshiped  this  fountain  also,  for  that  is  one  of 
the  oldest  and  most  widely  diffused  forms  of  worship  in 
the  world.  Restless  nature  will  some  day  overthrow  the 
walls  of  the  temple,  which  she  is  piercing  with  the  roots 
of  shrubs  and  entwining  with  the  shoots  of  climbing  wild 
vines,  and  then  only  the  fountain  will  be  left. 

From  Fort  Victoria  to  Fort  Sahsbury  it  is  nearly  two 
hundred  mUes,  the  country  generally  level,  though  studded, 
like  parts  of  southern  India,  with  isolated  rocky  hills,  whose 
crags  of  granite  or  gneiss  break  under  the  sun  and  rain 
into  strange  and  fantastic  shapes.  A  people  suflQciently 
advanced  to  erect  fortifications  might  have  made  for 

16* 


24:6 


BIPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


themselves  impregnable  strongholds  out  of  the  tops  of 
these  kopjes.  The  timid  Makalakas  have  in  many  places 
planted  their  hnts  in  the  midst  of  the  huge  detached  masses 
into  which  the  kopjes  are  cleft ;  but  they  have  not  known 
how  to  make  their  villages  defensible,  and  have  been  con- 
tent with  piling  up  a  few  loose  stones  to  close  some  narrow 
passage  between  the  rocks,  or  surrounding  theii-  huts  with 
a  rough  fence  of  thorn-bushes.  We  found  one  deserted 
village,  where  upon  each  loose  block  there  had  been  placed 
a  rude  erection  of  clay,  covered  at  the  top,  and  apparently 
intended  for  the  storing  of  grain.  Thus  raised  from  the 
ground,  it  was  safer  from  wild  beasts  and  from  rain.  All 
the  dwelUng-huts  but  two  had  been  bui-ned.  We  entered 
these,  and  found  the  walls  covered  with  the  rudest  possible 
representations  of  men  and  animals,  di-awn  with  chai'coal, 
more  coarsely  than  an  average  child  of  ten  would  draw, 
and  far  inferior  in  spirit  to  the  figures  which  the  Lapps  of 
Norway  will  draw  on  a  reindeer-horn  spoon,  or  the  Red 
Indians  of  Dakota  upon  a  calico  cloak.  Whether  the  \dl- 
lage  had  perished  by  an  accidental  fire,  or  whether  its  in- 
habitants, reUeved  from  that  terror  of  the  MatabUi  which 
di-ove  them  to  hide  among  the  rocks,  had  abandoned  it  for 
some  spot  in  the  plain  below,  there  was  no  one  to  teU  us. 
One  curious  trace  of  insecurity  remained  in  a  diy  and  light 
tree-ti-unk,  which  had  been  left  standing  against  the  side 
of  a  flat-topped  rock  some  thirty  feet  high,  with  the  lowest 
dozen  feet  too  steep  to  be  chmbed.  It  had  evidently  serv'ed 
as  a  sort  of  ladder.  By  it  the  upper  part  of  the  rock  might 
be  gained,  and  when  it  had  been  pulled  up,  approach  was 
cut  off  and  the  fugitives  on  the  flat  top  might  be  safe,  while 
the  Matabili  were  plundering  theu*  stores  of  gi-ain  and  kill- 
ing theii'  friends  beneath. 

All  this  eastern  side  of  the  country  was  frequently  raided 


FEOM  BULAWAYO  TO  FORT  SALISBURY  247 

by  the  Matabili,  whose  home  lay  farther  west  towai'd  Bu- 
lawayo.  The  Makalakas  could  offer  no  resistance,  not 
only  because  thej''  were  poor  fighters,  but  also  because  they 
were  without  cohesion.  The  clans  were  small  and  obeyed 
no  common  overlord.  Most  of  the  villages  lived  quite 
unconnected  with  one  another,  yielding  obedience,  often  a 
doubtful  obedience,  to  their  own  chief,  but  caring  nothing 
for  any  other  village.  Among  savages  the  ascendancy  of 
a  comparatively  numerous  tribe  which  is  drilled  to  fight, 
and  which  renders  implicit  obedience  to  its  chief,  is  swift 
and  complete.  The  Matabili  when  they  entered  this 
country  had  probably  only  ten  or  twelve  thousand  fight- 
ing men ;  but  they  conquered  it  without  the  slightest  diffi- 
culty, for  the  inhabitants,  though  far  more  numerous,  were 
divided  into  small  communities,  and  did  not  attempt  to 
offer  any  collective  resistance.  Then  for  more  than  half 
a  centm-y  slaughter  and  pillage  reigned  over  a  tract  of 
some  ninety  thousand  square  miles.  Much  of  this  tract, 
especially  the  eastern  part,  which  we  call  Mashonaland,  was 
well  peopled  by  tribes  who  Lived  quietly,  had  plenty  of 
cattle,  tnied  the  soil,  and  continued  to  dig  a  little  gold,  as 
their  forefathers  had  done  for  centuries.  They  were  now 
mercilessly  raided  by  the  Matabili  aU  the  way  from  Lake 
Ngami  on  the  west  to  the  edge  of  the  great  plateau  on  the 
east,  tdl  large  districts  were  depopulated  and  left  desolate, 
the  grown  men  having  been  all  killed  or  chased  away,  the 
children  either  killed  or  made  slaves  of  or  taken  as  recruits 
into  the  Matabili  army.  Constant  war  and  the  sanguinary 
government  of  Lo  Bengula  reduced  the  number  of  the  true 
Matabili,  so  that  such  recruiting  became  a  necessity.  Their 
successes  filled  the  Matabili  with  an  overweening  confi- 
dence in  their  power.  Through  all  South  Africa  they  de- 
spised every  native  tribe,  except  that  martial  one  which  was 


248  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


ruled  by  Gungunhana  on  the  eastern  frontier  of  Mashona- 
land,  and  despised  even  tlie  white  men,  thinking  them  but 
a  handful.  The  indunas,  who  had  ^dsited  London  in  1891, 
endeavored  to  warn  them  of  the  resources  of  the  whites,  and 
Lo  Bengula  himself  was  opposed  to  war.  But  the  young 
braves,  who,  like  Cetewayo's  Zulus,  desired  to  "  wash  their 
spears,"  overbore  the  reluctance  of  the  monarch,  only  to 
perish  in  the  war  of  1893. 

Toward  Fort  Salisbury  the  country  rises  and  grows 
prettier  as  it  shows  signs  of  a  more  copious  rainfall.  New 
flowers  appear,  and  the  grass  is  greener.  About  twelve 
miles  before  the  town  is  reached  one  crosses  a  considerable 
stream  with  a  long,  deep,  clear  pool  among  rocks,  and  is 
told  of  the  misadventure  of  an  English  doctor  who,  after 
a  hasty  plunge  into  the  pool,  was  drj-ing  himself  on  a  flat 
stone  just  above  the  water  when  a  crocodile  suddenly  raised 
its  hideous  snout,  seized  his  leg  in  its  jaws,  and  dragged 
him  down.  Fortunatelj^  his  companions  were  close  at 
hand  and  succeeded  after  a  struggle  in  forcing  the  beast 
to  drop  its  prey. 

The  town  itself  is  built  at  the  foot  of  a  low,  wooded  hill, 
on  the  top  of  which  stood  the  original  fort,  hastily  con- 
structed of  loose  stones  in  1890,  and  occupied  in  serious 
earnest  for  defense  dui-ing  the  Matabili  war.  It  spreads 
over  a  wide  space  of  ground,  with  houses  scattered  here 
and  there,  and  has  become,  since  the  draining  of  the  marshy 
land  on  the  banks  of  a  streamlet  which  runs  through  it, 
free  from  malaria  and  quite  healthful.  Though  I  found 
the  sun-heat  great  in  the  end  of  October  (for  one  is  only 
eighteen  degrees  from  the  equator),  the  air  was  so  fresh 
and  dry  that  I  could  walk  for  miles  in  the  full  blaze  of 
noon,  and  the  nights  were  too  cool  to  sit  out  on  the  stoep 
(the  wooden  veranda  which  one  finds  at  the  front  of  every 


FROM  BULAWAYO  TO  FORT  SALISBURY  249 


South  African  house)  without  an  overcoat.  Just  round 
the  town  the  country  is  open  and  grassy,  but  the  horizon 
in  every  direction  is  closed  by  woods.  The  views  are  far 
prettier  than  those  from  Bulawayo,  and  the  position  of 
the  town  makes  it  a  better  center  for  the  administration 
as  well  as  the  commerce  of  the  Company's  territories.  It 
is  only  two  hundred  and  twenty  miles  from  the  Zambesi 
at  Tete,  and  only  three  hundred  and  seventy  from  the  port 
of  Beira.  The  Company  did  well  to  encourage  the  growth 
of  Bulawayo  immediately  after  the  conquest  of  1893,  be- 
cause it  was  necessary  to  explore  and  to  establish  order 
in  the  newest  parts  of  its  territory.  But  in  the  long  run, 
and  especially  when  the  regions  north  of  the  Zambesi  begin 
to  be  practically  occupied,  Bulawayo,  standing  in  a  corner 
of  the  country,  will  have  to  yield  to  the  more  imperial  site 
of  Fort  Salisbury.  The  district  which  lies  round  the  lat- 
ter town  is  better  watered  than  western  Matabililand,  and 
the  soil  richer  both  for  pasture  and  for  tillage.  The  rain- 
fall for  the  year  ending  April,  1890,  reached  fifty-three 
inches,  and  the  average  is  about  forty. 

Fort  Salisbury  is  three  years  older  than  Bulawayo,  so 
that  I  was  not  surprised  to  find  it  much  more  advanced. 
There  are  several  churches,  and  there  is  a  colony  of  East 
Indians,  who  grow  vegetables  and  get  very  high  prices  for 
them.  A  considerable  trade  is  done  in  supplying  the  needs 
of  the  mining  districts  to  the  north  and  west.  A  good 
many  gold-reefs  he  out  in  those  directions,  and  great  hopes 
are  entertained  of  their  future,  though  at  the  time  of 
my  visit  people  were  much  busier  in  floating  new  com- 
panies to  develop  the  mines  than  in  taking  steps  for  their 
actual  development.  Some  very  pretty  country  residences, 
in  the  style  of  Indian  bungalows,  have  been  built  on  the 
skirts  of  the  woods  a  mile  or  two  from  the  town ;  and 


250 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


street-lamps  now  light  people  to  their  homes  along  paths 
where  four  years  ago  Hons  were  stiU  encountered.  The 
last  lion  recoiling  in  dismay  from  the  fii'st  street-lamp 
would  be  a  good  subject  for  a  picture  to  illustrate  the 
progress  of  Mashonaland. 


CHAPTER  XVI 


FROM  FORT  SALISBURY  TO  THE    SEA— MANICALAND 
AND  THE  PORTUGUESE  TERRITORIES 

IN  Africa,  moisture  is  everything.  It  makes  the  differ- 
ence between  fertility  and  barrenness ;  it  makes  the  dif- 
ference between  a  cheerful  and  a  melancholy  landscape.  As 
one  travels  northeastward  from  Palapshwye  to  Bulawayo, 
and  from  Bulawayo  to  Fort  Salisbury,  one  passes  by  de- 
grees from  an  arid  and  almost  rainless  land  to  a  land  of 
showers  and  flowing  waters.  In  Bechuanaland  there  are, 
except  for  three  months  in  the  year,  no  streams  at  aU.  In 
Matabililand  one  begins  to  find  brooks.  In  Mashonaland 
there  are  at  last  rivers,  sometimes  with  rocky  banks  and 
clear,  deep  pools,  which  (like  that  just  mentioned)  tempt 
one  to  bathe  and  risk  the  terrible  snap  of  a  crocodile's 
jaws.  Thus  eastern  Mashonaland  is  far  more  attractive 
than  the  countries  which  I  have  described  in  the  last  two 
chapters.  It  has  beautiful  and  even  striking  scenery. 
The  soU,  where  the  granitic  rocks  do  not  come  too  near 
the  surface,  is  usually  fertUe,  and  cultivation  is  easier 
than  in  the  regions  to  the  southwest,  because  the  rains  are 
more  copious.  There  are  many  places  round  Fort  Salis- 
bury and  on  the  way  thence  to  Mtali  and  Massikessi  where 
a  man  might  willingly  settle  down  to  spend  his  days,  so 

251 


252 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


genial  and  so  full  of  beauty  is  the  nature  aroiind  him. 
And  as  the  land  is  high,  it  is  also  healthful.  Except  in  a 
few  of  the  valley  bottoms,  fever  need  not  be  feared,  even 
after  the  rains. 

From  Fort  Salisbury  to  the  Indian  Ocean  at  Beira  it  is 
a  journey  of  three  himdi-ed  and  seventy  miles,  of  which 
the  first  one  hundred  and  fiftj'-flve  are  in  British,  the  rest 
in  Portuguese,  territory.  When  the  railway,  which  now 
(May,  1897)  runs  inland  for  one  hundred  and  fifty-eight 
miles  from  Beira,  has  been  completed  to  Fort  Salisbury, 
this  distance,  which  at  present  requires  at  least  eight  days' 
travel,  will  become  a  trifle.  But  those  who  wiU  then  hurry 
through  this  picturesque  region  behind  the  locomotive 
will  lose  much  of  the  charm  which  the  journey,  by  far  the 
most  attractive  part  of  a  South  African  torn-,  now  has  for 
the  lover  of  nature. 

For  the  first  forty  miles  southeastward  from  Fort  Salis- 
bury the  track  runs  thi-ough  a  wooded  country,  diversified 
by  broad  stretches  of  pasture.  Here  and  there  we  found 
a  European  farm,  marked  in  the  distance  by  the  waving 
tops  of  the  gum-trees,  with  the  low  wooden  house  fes- 
tooned by  the  briUiant  mauve  blossoms  of  the  climbing 
BougainviUea,  and  the  garden  inclosed  by  hedges  of  gren- 
adilla,  whose  fi-uit  is  much  eaten  in  South  Africa.  Vege- 
tables raised  on  these  farms  fetch  enormous  prices  in  the 
town,  so  that  a  man  who  understands  the  business  may 
count  on  making  more  by  this  than  he  will  do  by  "  pros- 
pecting" for  gold-mines  or  even  by  floating  companies. 
We  foimd  the  grass  generally  fresh  and  green,  for  some 
showers  had  fallen,  and  the  trees,  though  still  small,  were 
in  new  leaf  with  exquisite  tints  of  red.  Now  and  then, 
through  gaps  between  the  nearer  hiUs,  there  are  glimpses 
of  dim  blue  mountains.  As  one  gets  farther  to  the  south- 


FROM  FORT  SALISBURY  TO  THE  SEA  253 


east  the  hills  are  higher,  and  on  either  side  there  rise  fan- 
tastic kopjes  of  granite.  Their  tops  are  cleft  and  riven  by 
deep  fissures,  and  huge  detached  blocks  are  strewn  about 
at  their  base,  or  perched  like  gigantic  tables  upon  the  tops 
of  pillars  of  rock,  poised  so  finely  that  one  fancies  a  blast 
of  wind  might  overthrow  them.  These  "  perched  blocks," 
however,  have  not,  like  the  hlocs  perches  of  western  Europe^ 
been  left  by  ancient  glaciers  or  icebergs,  for  it  seems  still 
doubtful  whether  there  has  been  a  glacial  period  in  South 
Africa,  and  neither  here  nor  in  the  mountains  of  Basuto- 
land  could  I  discover  traces  of  ancient  moraines.  They  are 
due  to  the  natural  decomposition  of  the  rock  on  the  spot. 
The  alternate  heat  of  the  day  and  cold  of  the  night— a  cold 
which  is  often  great,  owing  to  the  radiation  into  a  cloudless 
sky— split  the  masses  by  alternate  expansion  and  contrac- 
tion, make  great  flakes  peel  olf  them  like  the  coats  of  an 
onion,  and  give  them  these  singularly  picturesque  shapes. 
All  this  part  of  the  country  is  as  eminently  fit  for  a  land- 
scape-painter as  Bechuanaland  and  the  more  level  parts  of 
MatabUiland  are  unfit,  seeing  that  here  one  has  foregrounds 
as  well  as  backgrounds,  and  the  colors  are  as  rich  as  the 
forms  are  varied.  For  I  must  add  that  in  this  region, 
instead  of  the  monotonous  thorny  acacias  of  the  western 
regions,  there  is  much  variety  in  the  trees;  no  tropical 
luxuriance, — the  air  is  stUl  too  dry  for  that,— but  many 
graceful  outlines  and  a  great  diversity  of  foHage.  Besides, 
the  wood  has  a  way  of  disposing  itself  with  wonderful 
grace.  There  is  none  of  the  monotony  either  of  pine  for- 
ests, like  those  of  northern  and  eastern  Europe,  or  of  such 
forests  of  deciduous  trees  as  one  sees  in  Michigan  and  the 
Alleghanies,  but  rather  what  in  England  we  call  "  park-like 
scenery,"  though  why  nature  should  be  supposed  to  do  best 
when  she  imitates  art,  I  will  not  attempt  to  inquire.  There 


254  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


are  belts  of  wood  inclosing  secluded  lawns,  and  groups 
of  trees  dotted  over  a  stretch  of  roUing  meadow,  pretty 
little  bits  of  detail  wliich  enhance  the  charm  of  the  ample 
sweeps  of  view  that  rise  and  roU  to  the  far-off  blue  horizon. 

Beyond  MarandeUa's— the  word  soimds  ItaUan,  but  is 
really  the  Anglicized  form  of  the  name  of  a  native  chief — 
the  country  becomes  still  more  open,  and  solitary  peaks  of 
gneiss  begin  to  stand  up,  their  sides  of  bare,  smooth  gray 
rock  sometimes  too  steep  to  be  climbed.  Below  and  be- 
tween them  are  broad  stretches  of  pasture,  with  here  and 
there,  on  the  banks  of  the  streams,  pieces  of  land  which 
seem  eminently  fit  for  tillage.  On  one  such  piece— it  is 
called  Lawrencedale— we  found  that  two  young  EngUsh- 
men  had  brought  some  forty  acres  into  cultivation,  and 
admired  the  crops  of  vegetables  they  were  raising  partly 
by  irrigation,  partly  in  reliance  on  the  rains.  Almost  any- 
thing win  grow,  but  garden-stuff  pays  best,  because  there 
is  in  and  round  Fort  Salisbury  a  market  clamorous  for  it. 
The  great  risk  is  that  of  a  descent  of  locusts,  for  these 
pests  may  in  a  few  houi-s  strip  the  ground  clean  of  all 
that  covers  it.  However,  oui*  young  farmers  had  good 
hopes  of  scaring  off  the  swarms,  and  i£  they  could  do  so 
their  profits  would  be  large  and  certain.  A  few  hours 
more  through  di'iving  showers,  which  made  the  weird 
landscape  of  scattered  peaks  even  more  solemn,  brought 
us  to  the  halting-place  on  Lezapi  River,  a  pretty  spot  high 
above  the  stream,  where  the  store  which  supplies  the  neigh- 
borhood with  the  necessaries  of  hfe  has  blossomed  into  a 
sort  of  hotel,  with  a  good  many  sleeping-huts  round  it. 
One  finds  these  stores  at  intervals  of  about  twenty  or 
thirty  miles ;  and  they,  with  an  occasional  farm  hke  that 
of  Lawrencedale,  represent  the  extremely  smaU  European 
population,  which  averages  less  than  one  to  a  dozen  square 


FEOM  FOET  SALISBURY  TO  THE  SEA  255 


miles,  even  reckoning  in  the  missionaries  that  are  scattered 
here  and  there. 

From  Lezapi  I  made  an  excursion  to  a  curious  native 
building  lying  some  six  mUes  to  the  east,  which  Mr.  Se- 
lous  had  advised  me  to  see.  The  heat  of  the  weather  made 
it  necessary  to  start  very  early,  so  I  was  awakened  while 
it  was  still  dark.  But  when  I  stood  ready  to  be  off  just 
before  sunrise,  the  Kafir  boy,  a  servant  of  the  store,  who 
was  to  have  guided  me,  was  not  to  be  found.  No  search 
could  discover  him.  He  had  apparently  disliked  the  er- 
rand, perhaps  had  some  superstitious  fear  of  the  spot  he 
was  to  lead  me  to,  and  had  vanished,  quite  unmoved  by 
the  prospect  of  his  employer's  displeasure  and  of  the  sum 
he  was  to  receive.  The  incident  was  characteristic  of 
these  natives.  They  are  curiously  wayward.  They  are 
influenced  by  motives  they  cannot  be  induced  to  disclose, 
and  the  motives  which  most  affect  a  European  sometimes 
fail  altogether  to  tell  upon  them.  With  great  difficulty 
I  succeeded  in  finding  another  native  boy  who  promised 
to  show  me  the  way,  and  followed  him  off  through  the 
wood  and  over  the  pastures,  unable  to  speak  a  word  to 
him,  and  of  course  understanding  not  a  word  of  the  vol- 
uble bursts  of  talk  with  which  he  every  now  and  then 
favored  me.  It  was  a  lovely  morning,  the  sky  of  a  soft 
and  creamy  blue,  dewdrops  sparkling  on  the  taU  stalks  of 
grass,  the  rays  of  the  low  sun  striking  between  the  tree- 
tops  in  the  thick  wood  that  clothed  the  opposite  hill, 
wliUe  here  and  there  faint  blue  smoke-wreaths  rose  from 
some  Kafir  hut  hidden  among  the  brushwood.  We 
passed  a  large  village,  and  just  beyond  it  overtook  three 
Kafirs,  all  talking  briskly,  as  is  their  wont,  one  of  them 
carrying  a  gun  and  apparently  going  after  game.  A 
good  many  natives  have  firearms,  but  acts  of  violence 


256  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


seem  to  be  extremely  rare.  Then,  passing  under  some 
rocky  heights,  we  saw,  after  an  hour  and  a  half's  fast 
walking,  the  group  of  huts  where  the  Company's  native 
commissioner,  whom  I  was  going  to  find,  had  fixed  his 
station.  Some  Kafirs  were  at  work  on  their  mealie-plots, 
and  one  of  them,  dropping  his  mattock,  rushed  across  and 
insisted  on  shaking  hands  with  me,  sajing  "  Moragos," 
which  is  said  to  be  a  mixture  of  Dutch  and  Kafir  meaning 
"  Good  morning,  sir."  The  commissioner  was  li\Tng  alone 
among  the  natives,  and  declai-ed  himself  quite  at  ease  as  to 
their  behavior.  One  chief  dwelling  near  had  been  restive, 
but  submitted  when  he  was  treated  with  fii-mness;  and 
the  natives  generally— so  he  told  me— seem  rather  to  wel- 
come the  intervention  of  a  white  man  to  compose  their 
disputes.  They  are,  he  added,  prone  to  break  their  prom- 
ises, except  in  one  case.  If  an  object,  even  if  of  small 
value,  has  been  delivered  to  them  as  a  token  of  the  en- 
gagement made,  they  feel  bound  by  the  engagement  so 
long  as  they  keep  this  object,  and  when  it  is  formally  de- 
manded back  they  will  restore  it  unharmed.  The  fact  is 
curious,  and  throws  light  on  some  of  the  features  of  prim- 
itive legal  custom  in  Eui'ope. 

The  commissioner  took  me  to  the  two  pieces  of  old 
building— one  can  hardly  call  them  ruins— which  I  had 
come  to  see.  One  (called  Chipadzi's)  has  been  already 
mentioned  (see  p.  73,  ante).  It  is  a  bit  of  ancient  wall  of 
blocks  of  trimmed  granite,  neatly  set  without  mortar,  and 
evidently  meant  to  defend  the  most  accessible  point  on  a 
rocky  kopje,  which  in  some  distant  age  had  been  a  strong- 
hold. It  has  all  the  appearance  of  having  been  constnicted 
by  the  same  race  that  built  the  walls  of  Dhlodhlo  (see 
p.  69)  and  Zimbabwj^e  (see  p.  74)  (though  the  work  is  not 
so  neat),  and  is  called  by  the  natives  a  Zimbabwj'e.  Behind 


PROM  FORT  SALISBURY  TO  THE  SEA  257 


it,  in  the  center  of  the  kopje,  is  a  rude  low  wall  of  rough 
stones  inclosing  three  huts,  only  one  of  which  remains 
roofed.  Under  this  one  is  the  grave  of  a  famous  chief 
called  Makoni,— the  name  is  rather  an  official  than  a  per- 
sonal one,  and  his  personal  name  was  Chipadzi,— the  uncle 
of  the  present  Makoni,  who  is  the  leading  chief  of  this 
district.^  On  the  grave  there  stands  a  large  earthenware 
pot,  which  used  to  be  regularly  filled  with  native  beer  when, 
once  a  year,  about  the  anniversary  of  this  old  Makoni's 
death,  his  sons  and  other  descendants  came  to  venerate 
and  propitiate  his  ghost.  Five  years  ago,  when  the  white 
men  came  into  the  country,  the  ceremony  was  disused,  and 
the  poor  ghost  is  now  left  without  honor  and  nutriment. 
The  pot  is  broken,  and  another  pot,  which  stood  in  an  ad- 
joining hut  and  was  used  by  the  worshipers,  has  disap- 
peared. The  place,  however,  retains  its  awesome  character, 
and  a  native  boy  who  was  with  us  would  not  enter  it.  The 
sight  brought  vividly  to  mind  the  similar  spirit-worship 
which  went  on  among  the  Romans  and  which  goes  on  to- 
day in  China;  but  I  could  not  ascertain  for  how  many 
generations  back  an  ancestral  ghost  receives  these  atten- 
tions—a point  which  has  remained  obscure  in  the  case  of 
Roman  ghosts  also. 

The  other  curiosity  is  much  more  modern.  It  is  a  de- 
serted native  village  called  Tchitiketi  {"  the  walled  town 
which  has  been  rudely  fortified  with  three  concentric  lines 
of  defense,  in  a  way  not  common  among  the  Kafirs.  The 
huts,  which  have  now  totally  disappeared,  stood  on  one 
side  of  a  rocky  eminence,  and  were  surrounded  by  a  sort 
of  ditch  ten  feet  deep,  within  which  was  a  row  of  trees 

^  He  was  the  restive  chief  mentioned  on  the  last  preceding  page, 
who  joined  in  the  rising  of  1896,  and  was,  I  believe,  taken  prisoner 
and  shot. 

17 


258  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


planted  closely  together,  with,  the  intervals  probably  origi- 
nally filled  by  a  stockade.  Some  of  these  trees  do  not 
grow  wild  in  this  part  of  the  country,  and  have  apparently 
been  planted  from  shoots  brought  from  the  Portuguese 
territories.  Within  this  outmost  Hne  there  was  a  second 
row  of  trees  and  a  rough  stone  wall,  forming  an  inner  de- 
fense. Stdl  farther  in  one  finds  a  kind  of  citadel,  formed 
partly  by  the  rocks  of  the  kopje,  partly  by  a  waU  of  rough 
stones,  ten  feet  high  and  seven  to  eight  feet  thick,  plas- 
tered with  mud,  which  holds  the  stones  together  Kke 
mortar.  This  wall  is  pierced  by  small  apertures,  which 
apparently  served  as  loopholes  for  arrows,  and  there  is  a 
sort  of  narrow  gate  thi'ough  it,  only  four  and  a  half  feet 
high,  covered  by  a  slab  of  stone.  "Within  the  citadel,  sev- 
eral chiefs  are  buried  in  cre\dces  of  the  rock,  which  have 
been  waUed  up ;  and  there  are  stiU.  visible  the  remains  of 
the  huts  wherein,  upon  a  wicker  stand,  were  placed  the 
pots  that  held  the  beer  provided  for  their  ghosts.  Hav- 
ing ceased  to  be  a  royal  residence  or  a  fortress,  the  spot 
remains,  like  the  Escui-ial,  a  place  of  royal  sepulture.  The 
natives  remember  the  names  of  the  dead  chiefs,  but  Kttle 
else,  and  cannot  teU  one  when  the  fortress  was  bmlt  nor 
why  it  was  forsaken.  Everything  is  so  rude  that  one  must 
suppose  the  use  of  loopholes  to  have  been  learned  from 
the  Portuguese,  who  apparently  came  from  time  to  time 
into  these  regions ;  and  the  rudeness  confirms  the  theory 
that  the  buildings  at  the  Great  Zimbabwye  were  not  the 
work  of  any  of  the  present  Bantu  tribes,  but  of  some  less 
barbarous  race. 

It  is  not  easy  to  find  one's  way  alone  over  the  country 
in  these  parts,  where  no  Kafir  speaks  EngUsh,  and  where 
the  network  of  native  foot-paths  crossing  one  another 
soon  confuses  recollection.  However,  having  a  distant 


FEOM  FORT  SALISBURY  TO  THE  SEA  259 


mountain-peak  to  steer  my  course  by,  I  succeeded  in 
making  my  way  back  alone,  and  was  pleased  to  find  that, 
though  the  sun  was  now  high  in  heaven  and  I  had  neither 
a  sun-helmet  nor  a  white  umbrella,  its  rays  did  me  no 
harm.  A  stranger,  however,  can  take  liberties  with  the 
sun  which  residents  hold  it  safer  not  to  take.  Europeans 
in  these  countries  walk  as  little  as  they  can,  especially  in 
the  heat  of  the  day.  They  would  ride,  were  horses  attain- 
able, but  the  horse-sickness  makes  it  extremely  difficult 
to  find  or  to  retain  a  good  animal.  All  traveling  for  any 
distance  is  of  course  done  in  a  wagon  or  (where  one  can 
be  had)  in  a  Cape  cart. 

From  the  Lezapi  River  onward  the  scenery  grows  more 
striking  as  one  passes  immediately  beneath  some  of  the 
tall  towers  of  rock  which  we  had  previously  admired  from 
a  distance.  They  remind  one,  in  their  generally  gray  hue 
and  the  extreme  boldness  of  their  lines,  of  some  of  the 
gneissose  pinnacles  of  Norway,  such  as  those  above  Nae- 
rodal,  on  the  Sogne  Fiord.  One  of  them,  to  which  the 
English  have  given  the  name  of  the  Sugar  Loaf,  soars  in 
a  face  of  smooth  sheer  rock  nearly  1000  feet  above  the 
track,  the  lichens  that  cover  it  showing  a  wealth  of  rich 
colors,  greens  and  yellows  varied  here  and  there  by  long 
streaks  of  black  rain-drip.  Behind  this  summit  to  the 
northeast,  eight  to  twelve  miles  away,  rose  a  long  range  of 
sharp,  jagged  peaks,  perfectly  bare,  and  showing  by  their 
fine-cut  lines  the  hardness  of  their  rock.  They  were  not 
very  high,  at  most  2000  feet  above  the  level  of  the  plateau, 
which  is  here  some  4000  feet  above  sea-level.  But  the 
nobDity  of  their  forms,  and  their  clear  parched  sternness 
as  they  stood  in  the  intense  sunshine,  made  them  fill  and 
satisfy  the  eye  beyond  what  one  would  have  expected  from 
their  height.    That  severe  and  even  forbidding  quality 


260  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


■whicli  is  perceptible  in  the  aspect  of  the  South  African 
mountains,  as  it  is  in  those  of  some  other  hot  countries, 
seems  to  be  due,  in  some  degi-ee  at  least,  to  the  sense  of 
their  aridity  and  bai'eness.  One  feels  no  longing  to  chmb 
them,  as  one  would  long  to  climb  a  picturesque  mountain 
in  Europe,  because  one  knows  that  upon  their  scorching 
sides  there  is  no  verdm-e  and  that  no  spring  breaks  from 
beneath  their  crags.  Beautiful  as  they  are,  they  are  re- 
pellent ;  they  in\'ite  no  familiarity ;  they  speak  of  the  hard- 
ness, the  grimness,  the  silent  aloofness  of  nature.  It  is 
only  when  they  form  the  distant  backgroimd  of  a  view, 
and  especially  when  the  waning  light  of  evening  clothes 
their  stern  forms  with  tender  hues,  that  they  become  ele- 
ments of  pure  delight  in  the  landscape. 

Some  fifteen  mUes  east  of  this  range  we  came  upon  a 
natural  object  we  had  given  up  hoping  to  see  in  South 
Africa,  a  country  where  the  element  necessary  to  it  is  so 
markedly  deficient.  This  was  the  waterfall  on  the  Oudzi 
River,  one  of  the  tributaries  of  the  gi-eat  Sabi  River,  which 
falls  into  the  Indian  Ocean.  The  Oudzi  is  not  very  large 
in  the  dry  season,  nor  so  full  as  the  Garry  at  KUliecrankie 
or  the  stream  which  flows  thi'ough  the  Yosemite  Valley. 
But  even  this  represents  a  considerable  volume  of  water 
for  tropical  East  Africa ;  and  the  rapid— it  is  really  rather 
a  rapid  than  a  cascade — must  be  a  grand  sight  after  heavy 
rain,  as  it  is  a  picturesque  sight  even  in  October.  The 
stream  rushes  over  a  ridge  of  very  hard  granite  rock,  in- 
tersected by  veins  of  finer-grained  granite  and  of  green- 
stone. It  has  cut  for  itself  several  deep  channels  in  the 
rock,  and  has  scooped  out  many  hollows,  not,  as  usually, 
cii'cular,  but  elliptical  in  their  shape,  polished  smooth,  like 
the  little  pockets  or  basins  which  loose  stones  pohsh 
smooth  as  they  ai'e  driven  round  and  round  by  the  cur- 


FROM  FORT  SALISBURY  TO  THE  SEA  261 

rent  in  the  rocky  bed  of  a  Scotch  torrent.  The  brightness 
of  the  clear  green  water  and  the  softness  of  the  surrounding 
woods,  clothing  each  side  of  the  long  valley  down  which 
the  eye  pursues  the  stream  till  the  vista  is  closed  by  dis- 
tant mountains,  make  these  falls  one  of  the  most  novel 
and  charming  bits  of  scenery  even  in  this  romantic  land. 
One  more  pleasant  surprise  was  in  store  for  us  before  we 
reached  Mtali.  "We  had  seen  from  some  way  off  a  mass  of 
brilHant  crimson  on  a  steep  hillside.  Coming  close  under, 
we  saw  it  to  be  a  wood  whose  trees  were  covered  with  fresh 
leaves.  The  locusts  had  eaten  off  all  the  first  leaves  three 
weeks  before,  and  this  was  the  second  crop.  Such  a  wealth 
of  intense  yet  delicate  reds  of  all  hues,  pink,  crimson,  and 
scarlet,  sometimes  passing  into  a  flushed  green,  sometimes 
into  an  umber  brown,  I  have  never  seen,  not  even  in  the 
autumn  woods  of  North  America,  where,  as  on  the  moun- 
tain that  overhangs  Montreal  or  round  the  Saranac  Lakes, 
the  forest  is  aflame  with  the  glow  of  the  maples.  The 
spring,  if  one  may  give  that  name  to  the  season  of  the  first 
summer  rains,  is  for  South  Africa  the  time  of  colors,  as  is 
the  autumn  in  our  temperate  climes. 

Mtali— it  is  often  written  "UmtaH"  to  express  that 
vague  half -vowel  which  comes  at  the  beginning  of  so  many 
words  in  the  Bantu  languages— is  a  pretty  little  settlement 
in  a  valley  whose  sheltered  position  would  make  it  oppres- 
sive but  for  the  strong  easterly  breeze  which  blows  nearly 
every  day  during  the  hot  weather.  There  is  plenty  of 
good  water  in  the  hills  all  round,  and  the  higher  slopes  are 
green  with  fresh  grass.  The  town,  like  other  towns  in 
these  regions,  is  constructed  of  corrugated  iron, — for  wood 
is  scarce  and  dear,— with  a  few  brick- walled  houses  and 
a  fringe  of  native  huts,  while  the  outskirts  are  deformed 
by  a  thick  deposit  of  empty  tins  of  preserved  meat  and 

17" 


262  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


petroleum.  All  the  roofs  are  of  iron,  and  a  prudent  builder 
puts  iron  also  into  the  foundation  of  the  walls  beneath 
the  brick,  in  order  to  circumvent  the  white  ants.  These 
insects  are  one  of  the  four  plagues  of  South  Central  Africa. 
(The  other  three  are  locusts,  horse-sickness,  and  fever.) 
They  destroy  every  scrap  of  organic  matter  they  can  reach, 
and  will  even  eat  their  way  through  brick  to  reach  wood 
or  any  other  vegetable  matter  above  or  within  the  brick. 
Nothing  but  metal  stops  them.  They  work  in  the  dark, 
constructing  for  themselves  a  kind  of  tunnel  or  gallery  if 
they  have  to  pass  along  an  open  space,  as,  for  instance,  to 
reach  books  upon  a  shelf.  (I  was  taken  to  see  the  public 
library  at  Mtali,  and  found  they  had  destroyed  nearly  half 
of  it.)  They  are  small,  less  than  half  an  inch  long,  of  a 
dull  grayish  white,  the  queen,  or  female,  about  three  times 
as  large  as  the  others.  Her  quarters  are  in  a  sort  of  nest 
deep  ia  the  ground,  and  if  this  nest  can  be  found  and  de- 
stroyed the  plague  will  be  stayed,  for  a  time  at  least.  There 
are  several  other  kinds  of  ants.  The  small  red  ant  gets 
among  one's  provisions  and  devours  the  cold  chicken. 
We  spent  weary  hour's  in  trying  to  get  them  out  of  our 
food-boxes,  being  unable  to  fall  in  with  the  local  \'iew 
that  they  ought  to  be  eaten  with  the  meat  they  swarm 
over,  as  a  sort  of  relish  to  it.  There  is  also  the  large  red- 
dish-black ant,  which  bites  fiercely,  but  is  regai'ded  with 
favor  because  it  kills  the  white  ants  when  it  can  get  at 
them.  But  the  white  ant  is  by  far  the  most  pernicious 
kind,  and  a  real  curse  to  the  country. 

At  the  end  of  1896,  when  the  construction  of  the  Beira 
railway  from  Chimoyo  to  Fort  Salisbury  began  to  be 
energetically  prosecuted,  it  was  found  that  to  take  the 
line  past  Mtali  would  involve  a  detour  of  some  mUes 
and  a  heavy  gi'adient  in  crossing  a  ridge  at  the  Christmas 


PROM  FORT  SALISBURY  TO  THE  SEA  263 


Pass.  Mr.  Rhodes  promptly  determined,  instead  of  bring- 
ing the  railway  to  the  town,  to  bring  the  town  to  the  rail- 
way. Liberal  compensation  was  accordiagly  paid  to  aU 
those  who  had  built  houses  at  old  MtaH,  and  new  MtaH  is 
now  (1897)  rising  on  a  carefully  selected  site  seven  miles 
away. 

In  1895  there  were  about  one  hundred  Europeans  in  the 
town  of  MtaU,  aU,  except  the  Company's  officials  and  the 
storekeepers,  engaged  in  prospecting  for  or  beginning  to 
work  gold-mines ;  for  this  is  the  center  of  one  of  the  first- 
explored  gold  districts,  and  sanguine  hopes  have  been  enter- 
tained of  its  reefs.  We  drove  out  to  see  some  of  the  most 
promising  in  the  Penha  Longa  Valley,  six  mUes  to  the 
eastward.  Here  three  sets  of  galleries  have  been  cut,  and 
the  extraction  of  the  metal  was  said  to  be  ready  to  begin 
if  the  machinery  could  be  brought  up  from  the  coast.  As 
to  the  value  and  prospects  of  the  reefs,  over  which  I  was 
most  courteously  shown  by  the  gentlemen  directing  the 
operations,  I  could  of  course  form  no  opinion.  They  are 
quartz-reefs,  occurring  in  talcose  and  chloritic  schistose 
rocks,  and  some  of  them  maintain  their  direction  for  many 
miles.  There  is  no  better  place  than  this  valley  ^  for  ex- 
amining the  ancient  gold-workings,  for  here  they  are  of 
great  size.  Huge  masses  of  alluvial  soU  in  the  bottom  of 
the  valley  had  evidently  been  worked  over,  and  indeed  a 
few  laborers  are  stUl  employed  upon  these.  But  there  had 
also  been  extensive  open  cuttings  all  along  the  principal 
reefs,  the  traces  of  which  are  visible  in  the  deep  trenches 
following  the  line  of  the  reefs  up  and  down  the  slopes  of 
the  hills,  and  in  the  masses  of  rubbish  thrown  out  beside 

1  It  was  here  only,  on  the  banks  of  a  stream,  that  I  observed  the 
extremely  handsome  arboi'aceous  St.-John's-wort  {Hypericum  Schim- 
peri),  mentioned  on  page  28. 


264 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


them.  Some  of  these  cuttings  are  evidently  recent,  for 
the  sides  are  in  places  steep  and  even  abrupt,  which  they 
would  not  be  if  during  many  years  the  rains  had  been 
washing  the  earth  down  into  the  trenches.  Moreover,  ii'on 
implements  have  been  found  at  the  bottom,  of  modern 
shapes  and  very  little  oxidized.  Probably,  therefore, 
while  some  of  these  workings  may  be  of  great  antiquity, 
others  are  quite  recent — perhaps  less  than  a  century  old. 
Such  workings  occur  in  many  places  over  Mashonaland 
and  Matabihland.  They  are  always  open ;  that  is  to  say, 
the  reef  was  worked  down  from  the  surface,  not  along 
a  tunnel— a  fact  which  has  made  people  think  that  they 
were  carried  on  by  natives  only;  and  they  always  stop 
when  water  is  reached,  as  though  the  miners  had  known 
nothing  of  pumps.  Tradition  has  nothing  to  say  as  to 
the  workings ;  but  we  know  that  dm-ing  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries  a  good  deal  of  gold  was  brought 
down  to  the  Portuguese  coast  stations;  and  when  the 
Mashonaland  pioneers  came  in  1890,  there  were  stiU.  a  few 
Portuguese  trying  to  get  the  metal  out  of  the  alluvial 
deposits  along  the  stream  banks.  The  reefs,  which  are 
now  being  followed  by  level  shafts  or  galleries  driven 
into  the  sides  of  the  hills,  are  (in  most  cases  at  least)  the 
same  as  those  which  the  old  miners  attacked  from  above. 

North  of  Penha  Longa  lies  an  attractive  bit  of  country, 
near  a  place  called  Inyanga,  which,  unfortunately,  we  had 
not  time  to  visit.  It  is  a  sort  of  table-land  about  thirty 
miles  long  by  fifteen  wide,  from  6000  to  7000  feet  above  sea- 
level,  with  the  highest  summits  reaching  8000  feet ;  and  in 
respect  of  its  height  enjoys  not  only  a  keen  and  bracing 
air,  but  a  copious  rainfall,  which  makes  it  a  specially 
good  grazing-country.  It  wUl  probably  one  day  become 
not  only  the  choicest  ranching-ground  of  East  Central 


FROM  FORT  SALISBURY  TO  THE  SEA  265 

Africa,  but  also  a  health  resort  from  the  surrounding 
countries.  At  present  it  is  quite  empty,  the  land  having 
been,  as  I  was  told,  bought  up  by  several  syndicates,  who 
are  holding  it  in  hope  of  a  rise  in  prices.  Here  are  the 
remarkable  stone-cased  pits  (referred  to  in  Chapter  IX) ; 
and  here  there  are  also  numerous  ancient  artificial  water- 
courses for  irrigating  the  soil,  which  were  probably,  Mr. 
Rhodes  thinks,  constructed  by  some  race  of  immigrants 
accustomed  to  artificial  irrigation  in  their  own  country, 
for  it  would  hardly  have  occurred  to  natives  to  construct 
such  works  here,  where  the  rainfall  is  sufficient  for  the 
needs  of  tillage.  StiU.  farther  to  the  north  is  a  less  elevated 
region,  remarkable  for  the  traces  it  bears  of  having  been 
at  one  time  densely  populated.  TUlage  was  so  extensive 
that  the  very  hUlsides  were  built  up  into  terraces  to  be 
planted  with  crops.  To-day  there  are  hardly  any  inhabi- 
tants, for  a  good  many  years  ago  Mzila,  the  father  of 
Gungunhana,  chief  of  a  fierce  and  powerful  tribe  which 
lives  on  the  lower  coiirse  of  the  Sabi  River,  raided  all  this 
country,  and  in  successive  invasions  kUled  off  or  chased 
away  the  whole  population.  Such  wholesale  slaughter 
and  devastation  is  no  uncommon  thing  in  the  annals  of 
South  Africa.  Tshaka,  the  uncle  of  Cetewayo,  annihilated 
the  inhabitants  over  immense  tracts  round  Zululand.  And 
in  comparison  with  such  bloodthirsty  methods  the  Assyrian 
plan  of  deporting  conquered  populations  from  their  homes 
to  some  distant  land  may  have  seemed,  and  indeed  may 
have  been,  a  substantial  step  in  human  progress.  How- 
ever, just  when  Tshaka  was  massacring  his  Kafir  neigh- 
bors, the  Tui'ks  were  massacring  the  Christians  of  Chios, 
and  at  the  time  of  our  visit,  in  October,  1895,  Abdul-Hamid 
was  beginning  his  massacres  in  Asia  Minor;  so  perhaps 
the  less  said  about  progress  the  better. 


266 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


The  track  from  Mtali  to  the  sea  crosses  a  high  ridge 
at  a  point  called  the  Christmas  Pass,  and  descends  iato 
Portuguese  territory  through  some  very  noble  and  varied 
mountain  scenery.^  It  reminded  us  sometimes  of  the 
Italian  slopes  of  the  eastern  Alps,  sometimes  of  the  best 
parts  of  the  Perthshire  Highlands,  though  of  course  it  Tvas 
rather  in  the  forms  of  hill  and  valley  than  in  the  trees  that 
clothed  their  slopes  that  this  resemblance  lay.  The  first 
Portuguese  settlement  is  at  a  place  called  Macequece,  or 
Massikessi,  where  the  pioneers  of  the  British  South  Africa 
Company  conducted  in  1891  a  little  war  on  their  own  ac- 
count with  the  Portuguese,  whose  superior  forces  they 
routed.  The  Portuguese  claimed  aU  this  inland  region  on 
the  Hinterland  principle,  in  respect  of  theu'  ownership  of 
the  coast,  while  the  British  pioneers  relied  on  the  fact  that 
their  adversaries  had  never  established  a  really  effective 
occupation.  The  dispute  was  carried  by  the  Portuguese 
Mozambique  Company  into  the  English  courts  of  law,-  and 
was  ultimately  adjusted  diplomaticaU}^  by  an  agreement 
between  the  British  and  Portuguese  governments,  signed 
June  11, 1891.  The  delimitation  of  the  frontiers  was  not 
fully  completed  in  this  region  tiU  1896,  but  Massikessi  was 
by  the  treaty  of  1891  left  to  Portugal.  After  Massikessi 
the  mountains  recede,  and  wide  plains  begin  to  open  to  the 
east  and  south.  As  the  country  sinks,  the  temperature 
rises  and  the  air  gi'ows  heavier  and  less  keen.  The  gi'ound 
is  covered  with  wood,  and  in  the  woods  along  the  streams 
a  few  palms  and  bamboos  and  other  tropical  forms  of 
vegetation  begin  to  appear.  But  we  found  the  woods  in 
many  places  stripped  bare.    Temble  swarms  of  locusts 

^  It  is  in  the  midst  of  this  scenery  that  new  Mtali  is  being  now 
built  (1897). 

2  Law  Reports  for  1893,  A.  C,  p.  602. 


FROM  FORT  SALISBURY  TO  THE  SEA  267 


had  passed,  leaving  a  track  of  dismal  bareness.  It  had 
been  a  dry  year,  too,  and  even  what  grass  the  locusts  had 
spared  was  thin  and  withered.  Thus  for  want  of  food 
the  cattle  had  perished.  AU  along  the  road  from  Mtali 
we  saw  oxen  lying  dead,  often  by  some  pool  in  a  brook, 
to  which  they  had  staggered  to  drink,  and  where  they  lay 
down  to  die.  We  encountered  few  wagons,  and  those  few 
were  almost  all  standing  with  the  team  unyoked,  some  of 
their  beasts  dead  or  sickly,  some,  too  weak  to  draw  the  load 
farther,  obhged  to  stand  idly  where  they  had  halted  till  the 
animals  should  regain  strength,  or  fresh  oxen  be  procured. 
This  is  what  a  visitation  of  locusts  means,  and  this  is  how 
the  progress  of  the  country  is  retarded  by  the  stoppage  of 
the  only  means  of  transport.  No  wonder  that  over  all  the 
districts  we  had  traversed,  from  Fort  Salisbixry  southward, 
the  cry  had  been  for  the  completion  of  the  railway.  It  is, 
indeed,  the  fli-st  need  of  these  territories ;  and  those  who 
have  seen  what  the  want  of  it  has  meant  are  rejoiced  to 
think  that  by  the  end  of  1897  it  will  probably  have  reached 
MtaU,  and  in  a  year  or  two  more  have  been  carried  on  to 
Fort  Salisbury.  As  far  as  Massikessi  there  will  be  no  great 
difficulty,  for,  though  the  country  is  hilly,  the  gradients 
need  seldom  be  severe.  Thence  northward  across  the 
mountains  for  some  distance  skilful  engineering  will  be 
required.  But  in  South  Africa,  as  in  western  America, 
railways  are  buUt  in  a  rough-and-ready  way,  which  reeks 
little  of  obstacles  that  would  prove  very  costly  in  Europe. 

We  reached  the  present  terminus  of  the  railway  at 
Chimoyo  after  two  days'  long  and  fatiguing  travel  from 
Mtali,  including  an  upset  of  our  vehicle  in  descending  a 
steep  donga  to  the  bed  of  a  streamlet— an  upset  which 
might  easily  have  proved  serious,  but  gave  us  nothing 
worse  than  a  few  bruises.    The  custom  being  to  start  a 


268 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFEICA 


train  in  the  afternoon  and  run  it  througli  the  niglit,— as 
yet  all  trains  are  practically  special, —we  had  plenty  of  time 
to  look  round  the  place,  and  fortunately  found  a  comfor- 
table inn  and  a  most  genial  Scottish  landlord  from  Banff- 
shire. There  was,  however,  nothing  to  see,  not  even  Portu- 
guese local  color ;  for  though  Chimoyo  is  well  within  the 
Portuguese  frontier,  the  village  is  purely  British,  li\ing  by 
the  transport  service  which  makes  the  end  of  the  railway 
its  starting-point  for  the  territories  of  the  Company.  Hav- 
ing nothing  else  to  do,  I  climbed  through  the  sultry  noon 
to  the  top  of  the  nearest  kopje,  a  steep  granite  hill  which, 
as  I  was  afterward  told,  is  a  favorite  "  house  of  eaU for 
lions.  No  forest  monarch,  however,  presented  himself  to 
welcome  me,  and  I  was  left  to  enjoy  the  view  alone.  It  was 
striking.  Guarding  the  western  horizon  rose  the  long 
chain  of  mountains  from  which  we  had  emerged,  stretching 
in  a  huge  arc  from  southeast  to  north,  with  some  bold  out- 
hdng  peaks  flung  forward  from  the  main  mass,  all  by  their 
sharp,  stern  outlines,  in  which  similar  forms  were  con- 
stantly repeated,  showing  that  they  were  built  of  the  same 
hard  crystalline  rocks.  Beneath,  the  cormtry  spread  out 
in  a  vast,  wooded  plain,  green  or  brown,  according  as  the 
wood  was  denser  in  one  part  and  sparser  in  another.  It 
was  still  low  wood,  with  no  sense  of  tropical  luxm'iance 
about  it,  and  the  ground  still  diy,  with  not  a  glimpse  of 
water  anywhere.  Here  and  there  isolated  heights  rose 
out  of  this  sea  of  wood,  whose  abrupt  craggy  tops  glis- 
tened in  the  sunlight.  To  the  east  the  plain  feU  slowly 
away  to  an  immensely  distant  horizon,  where  lay  the 
deadly  flats  that  border  the  Indian  Ocean.  Except  where 
the  iron  roofs  of  the  huts  at  Chimoyo  shone,  there  was  not 
a  sign  of  human  dwelling  or  human  labor  through  this 
great  wild  country,  lying  still  and  monotonous  under  a 


FROM  FOET  SALISBURY  TO  THE  SEA  269 


cloudless  sky.  It  has  been  a  wilderness  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  world  until  now,  traversed,  no  doubt,  many 
centuries  ago  by  the  gold-seekers  whose  favorite  track 
went  up  from  the  coast  past  Great  Zimbabwye  into  what 
is  now  Matabililand,  traversed  again  occasionally  in  later 
times  by  Portuguese  traders,  but  in  no  wise  altered  during 
these  thousands  of  years  from  its  original  aspect.  Now 
at  last  its  turn  has  come.  A  new  race  of  gold-seekers 
have  built  a  railway,  and  along  the  railway,  wherever 
there  are  not  swamps  to  breed  fever,  the  land  will  be  taken 
for  farms,  and  the  woods  will  be  cut  down,  and  the  wild 
beasts  will  slink  away,  and  trading-posts  will  grow  into 
villages,  and  the  journey  from  Beira  to  Bulawayo  wiU 
become  as  easy  and  familiar  as  is  to-day  the  joxu-ney  from 
Chicago  to  San  Francisco,  through  a  country  which  a  cen- 
tury ago  was  as  little  known  as  this  African  wilderness. 

The  railway  from  Chimoyo  to  the  sea  has  one  of  the 
narrowest  gages  in  the  world  (two  feet),  and  its  tiny  loco- 
motives and  cars  have  almost  a  toy  air.  It  has,  however, 
rendered  two  immense  services  to  this  region :  it  has 
abridged  the  toilsome  and  costly  ox  transport  of  goods 
from  Beira  to  the  edge  of  the  high  country — a  transport 
whose  difficulty  lay  not  merely  in  the  badness  of  the  track 
through  ground  almost  impassable  during  and  after  the 
rains,  but  also  in  the  prevalence  of  the  tsetse-fly,  whose 
bite  is  fatal  to  cattle ;  and  it  carries  travelers  in  a  few 
hours  across  one  of  the  most  unhealthy  regions  in  the 
world,  most  of  which  is  infested  by  fevers  in  and  after  the 
wet  season,  and  the  lower  parts  of  which  are  so  malarious 
that  few  who  spend  three  nights  in  them,  even  in  the  dry 
season,  escape  an  attack.  Things  will  doubtless  improve 
when  the  country  grows  more  settled,  and  the  marshes 
have  been  drained,  and  the  long  grass  has  been  eaten  down 


270  IMPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


by  cattle ;  for  when  the  tsetse-fly  ceases  to  be  dangerous 
cattle  may  come  in.  It  appears  that  the  fly  kills  cattle  not 
by  anything  i^oisonous  in  its  bite,  but  because  it  communi- 
cates to  them  a  minute  parasite  which  lives  in  the  blood 
of  some  kinds  of  game,  and  which  is  more  pernicious  to 
cattle  than  it  is  to  the  game.  Accordingly,  when  the  game 
vanishes,  the  fly  either  vanishes  also  or  becomes  compara- 
tively harmless.  Already  places  once  infested  by  it  have 
by  the  disappearance  of  the  game  become  available  for 
ranching.  Recent  researches  seem  to  have  shown  that 
malarial  fevers  in  man  are  also  due  to  an  animal  parasite ; 
and  this  discovery  is  thought  to  damp  the  hope,  which  I  re- 
member to  have  heard  Mr.  Darwin  express,  that  the  fever- 
stricken  regions  of  the  tropics  might  become  safe  by 
ascertaining  what  the  fever  microbe  is  and  securing  men 
against  it  by  inoculation.  But  the  banks  of  the  rivers  and 
other  damper  spots  will  still  continue  to  breed  this  curse  of 
maritime  Africa.  The  railway  was  made  entirely  by  native 
labor  gathered  from  the  sui-rounding  regions,  and  the  con- 
tractors told  me  they  had  less  difficulty  with  the  Kafirs  than 
they  expected.  It  paid,  however,  a  hea-^^-  toU  in  European 
Hf  e.  Not  one,  I  think,  of  the  engineers  and  foremen  escaped 
fever,  and  many  died.  The  risk  for  those  employed  on  the 
line  is  of  course  now  much  slighter,  because  the  worst  spots 
are  known  and  there  are  now  houses  to  sleep  in.  There  is 
talk  of  widening  the  Hne,  whose  smaU  tmcks  would  be  un- 
equal to  a  hea^7'  traffic.  But  considering  the  difficulties 
overcome,  especially  in  the  swampy  lands  toward  the  coast, 
great  parts  of  which  are  flooded  in  Januarj^  and  February, 
it  reflects  great  credit  on  those  who  constructed  it. 

Shortly  after  leaving  Chimoyo  the  train  ran  through 
a  swarm  of  locusts  miles  long.  It  was  a  beautiful  sight. 
The  creatures  flash  like  red  snowflakes  in  the  sun  ;  the 


FROM  FORT  SALISBURY  TO  THE  SEA  271 

air  glitters  with  their  gauzy  wings.  But  it  is  also  ap- 
palling. An  earthquake  or  a  volcanic  eruption  is  hardly- 
more  destructive  and  hardly  more  irresistible.  The 
swarms  may  be  combated  when  the  insect  walks  along  the 
ground,  for  then  trenches  may  be  dug  into  which  the 
advancing  host  falls.  But  when  it  flies  nothing  can  stop 
it.  It  is  noteworthy  that  for  eighteen  years  prior  to  the 
arrival  of  the  British  pioneers  in  1890  there  had  been  no 
great  swarms.  Since  that  year  there  have  been  several ; 
so  the  Kafir  thinks  that  it  is  the  white  man's  coming  that 
has  provoked  the  powers  of  evU  to  send  the  plague. 

We  ran  down  the  one  hundred  and  eighteen  miles  from 
Chimoyo  to  Fontesvilla  during  the  afternoon  and  night, 
halting  for  three  or  four  hours  for  dinner  at  a  clearing 
where  a  hotel  and  store  have  been  built.  The  pace  was 
from  ten  to  fifteen  miles  an  hour.  After  the  first  twenty 
miles,  during  which  one  stiU  has  gUmpses  of  the  strange, 
isolated  peaks  that  spring  up  here  and  there  from  the 
plain,  the  scenery  becomes  rather  monotonous,  for  the  line 
runs  most  of  the  way  through  thick  forest,  the  trees  higher 
than  those  of  the  interior,  yet  not  of  any  remarkable 
beauty.  For  the  last  twenty-five  miles  the  railway  trav- 
erses a  dead  and  dreary  flat.  The  gentle  rise  of  the  ground 
to  the  west  conceals  even  the  outlying  spurs  of  the  great 
range  behind,  and  to  the  north  and  south  there  is  an  un- 
broken level.  The  soil  is  said  to  be  generally  poor,  a  very 
thin  layer  of  vegetable  mold  lying  over  sand,  and  the 
trees  are  few  and  seldom  taU.  It  is  a  country  full  of  aU 
sorts  of  game,  from  buffaloes,  elands,  and  koodoos  down- 
ward to  the  small  antelopes ;  and  as  game  abounds,  so  also 
do  lions  abound.  The  early  morning  is  the  time  when 
most  of  these  creatures  go  out  to  feed,  and  we  strained 
our  eyes  as  soon  as  there  was  Hght  enough  to  make  them 


272  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


out  from  the  car  windows.  But  beyond  some  wild  pig  and 
hartebeest,  and  a  few  of  the  smaller  antelopes,  nothing 
could  be  discerned  upon  the  pastures  or  among  the  tree- 
clumps.  Perhaps  the  creatures  have  begun  to  learn  that 
the  railroad  brings  their  enemies,  and  keep  far  away  from 
it.  A  year  after  our  visit  the  murrain,  to  which  I  have 
already  referred,  appeared  in  this  region,  and  has  now 
wrought  fearful  devastation  among  the  wild  animals, 
especially  the  buffaloes. 

The  railway  now  runs  all  the  way  from  Chimoyo  to  the 
port  of  Beira,  but  in  October,  1895,  came  to  an  end  at  a 
place  called  Fontesvilla,  on  the  Pungwe  River,  near  the 
highest  point  to  which  the  tide  rises.  We  had  therefore 
to  take  to  the  river  in  order  to  reach  Beira,  where  a  Ger- 
man steamer  was  timed  to  call  two  days  later ;  and  our 
friends  in  Mashonaland  had  prepared  us  to  expect  some 
disagreeable  experiences  on  the  river,  warning  us  not  to 
assume  that  twelve  or  fourteen  hoiu"s  would  be  enough, 
even  in  a  steamer,  to  accompUsh  the  fifty  miles  of  na\'iga- 
tion  that  lie  between  Fontesvilla  and  the  sea.  They  had 
been  specially  insistent  that  we  should  remain  in  Fontes- 
villa itself  no  longer  than  was  absolutely  necessary ;  for 
Fontesvilla  has  the  reputation  of  being  the  most  unhealthy 
spot  in  all  this  unhealthy  country.  We  were  told  that  the 
preceding  year  had  been  a  salubrious  one,  for  only  forty- 
two  per  cent,  of  the  European  residents  had  died.  There 
may  have  been  some  element  of  exaggeration  in  these 
figures,  but  the  truth  they  were  intended  to  convey  is  be- 
yond dispute  ;  and  the  bright  young  assistant  superinten- 
dent of  the  railroad  was  mentioned,  with  evident  wonder, 
as  the  only  person  who  had  been  more  than  three  months 
in  the  place  without  a  bad  attack  of  fever.  Fontesvilla  has 
not  the  externals  of  a  charnel-house.    It  consists  of  seven 


FROM  FORT  SALISBURY  TO  THE  SEA  273 


or  eight  scattered  frame  houses,  with  roofs  of  corrugated 
iron,  set  in  a  dull,  featureless  flat  on  the  banks  of  a  muddy 
river.  The  air  is  sultry  and  depressing,  but  has  not  that 
foul  swamp  smell  with  which  Poti,  on  the  Black  Sea,  reeks, 
the  most  malarious  spot  I  had  ever  before  visited.  Nor 
was  there  much  stagnant  water  visible ;  indeed,  the  ground 
seemed  dry,  though  there  are  marshes  hidden  among  the 
woods  on  the  other  side  of  the  river.  As  neither  of  the 
steamers  that  ply  on  the  Pungwe  could  come  up  at  neap 
tides,  and  with  the  stream  low,— for  the  rains  had  not  yet 
set  in,— the  young  superintendent  (to  whose  friendly  help 
we  were  much  beholden)  had  bespoken  a  rowboat  to  come 
up  for  us  from  the  lower  part  of  the  river.  After  waiting 
from  eight  till  half -past  ten  o'clock  for  this  boat,  we  began 
to  fear  it  had  failed  us,  and,  hastily  engaging  a  small  two- 
oared  one  that  lay  by  the  bank,  set  off  in  it  down  the  stream. 
Fortunately,  after  two  and  a  half  miles  the  other  boat,  a 
heavy  old  tub,  was  seen  slowly  making  her  way  upward, 
having  on  board  the  captain  of  the  little  steam-launch,  the 
launch  herself  being  obliged  to  remain  much  lower  down 
the  river.  We  transferred  ourselves  and  our  effects  to  this 
boat,  and  floated  gaUy  down,  thinking  oui'  troubles  over. 

The  Pungwe  is  here  about  one  hundred  yards  wide,  but 
very  shallow,  and  with  its  water  so  turbid  that  we  could 
not  see  the  bottom  where  it  was  more  than  two  feet  below 
the  surface.  It  was  noon ;  the  breeze  had  dropped,  and 
the  sun  was  so  strong  that  we  gladly  took  refuge  in  the 
little  cabin,  or  rather  covered  box,— a  sort  of  hen-coop,— 
at  the  stem.  The  stream  and  the  tide  were  with  us,  and 
we  had  four  native  rowers,  but  our  craft  was  so  heavy  that 
we  accomplished  barely  two  miles  an  hour.  As  the  chan- 
nel grew  wider  and  the  current  spread  itself  hither  and 
thither  over  sand-banks,  the  bed  became  more  shallow, 

18 


274 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


and  from  time  to  time  we  grounded.  "WTien  this  hap- 
pened, the  native  rowers  jumped  into  the  water  and  pushed 
or  pulled  the  boat  along.  The  farther  down  we  went,  and 
the  more  the  river  widened,  so  much  the  more  often  did 
we  take  the  bottom,  and  the  harder  did  we  find  it  to  get 
afloat  again.  Twelve  miles  below  Fontes\alla,  a  river 
caUed  the  Bigtmiti  comes  in  on  the  right,  and  at  its  mouth 
we  took  on  board  a  bold  young  EngHsh  sportsman  with  the 
skin  of  a  huge  lion.  Below  the  confluence,  where  a  maze 
of  sand-banks  encumbers  the  channel,  we  encountered  a 
strong  easterly  breeze.  The  big  clumsy  boat  made  scarcely 
any  way  against  it,  and  stuck  upon  the  sand  so  often  that 
the  Kafirs,  who  certainly  worked  with  a  will,  were  more 
than  half  the  time  in  the  water  up  to  their  knees,  tugging 
and  shoving  to  get  her  off.  Meanwhile  the  tide,  what 
there  was  of  it,  was  ebbing  fast,  and  the  captain  admitted 
that  if  we  did  not  get  across  these  shoals  within  half  an 
hoiu"  we  should  certainly  lie  fast  upon  them  tiU  next  morn- 
ing at  least,  and  how  much  longer  no  one  could  teU.  It 
was  not  a  pleasant  prospect,  for  we  had  no  food  except 
some  biscuits  and  a  tin  of  cocoa,  and  a  night  on  the 
Pungwe,  with  pestiferous  swamps  all  round,  meant  almost 
certainly  an  attack  of  fever.  Nothing,  however,  could  be 
done  beyond  what  the  captain  and  the  Kafirs  were  doing, 
so  that  suspense  was  weighted  by  no  sense  of  personal  re- 
sponsibility. We  moved  alternately  from  stern  to  bow, 
and  back  from  bow  to  stern,  to  lighten  the  boat  at  one  end 
or  the  other,  and  looked  to  windward  to  see  from  the  sharp 
curl  of  the  waves  whether  the  gusts  which  stopped  our  pro- 
gress were  freshening  further.  Fortunately  they  abated. 
Just  as  the  captain  seemed  to  be  giving  up  hope— the  only 
fault  we  had  with  him  was  that  his  face  revealed  too 
plainly  his  anxieties— we  felt  ourselves  glide  off  into  a 


FROM  FORT  SALISBURY  TO  THE  SEA  275 


deeper  channel ;  the  Kafirs  jvunped  in  and  smote  the  dark- 
brown  current  with  their  oars,  and  the  prospect  of  a  rest- 
ful night  at  Beira  rose  once  more  before  us.  But  our 
difficulties  were  not  quite  over,  for  we  grounded  several 
times  afterward,  and  progress  was  so  slow  that  it  seemed 
very  doubtful  whether  we  should  find  and  reach  before 
dark  the  little  steam-launch  that  had  come  up  to  meet  us. 

Ever  since  my  childish  imagination  had  been  captivated 
by  the  picture  of  Afric's  sunny  fountains  rolling  down 
their  golden  sand,  the  idea  of  traversing  a  tropical  forest 
on  the  bosom  of  a  great  African  river  had  retained  its  fas- 
cination. Here  at  last  was  the  reality,  and  what  a  dreary 
reality !  The  shallow,  muddy  stream,  broken  into  many 
channels,  which  inclosed  low,  sandy  islets,  had  spread  to  a 
width  of  two  miles.  The  alluvial  banks,  rising  twenty  feet 
in  alternate  layers  of  sand  and  clay,  cut  off  any  view  of 
the  country  behind.  All  that  could  be  seen  was  a  fringe 
of  thick,  low  trees,  the  edge  of  the  forest  that  ran  back 
from  the  river.  Conspicuous  among  them  was  the  ill- 
omened  "fever-tree,"  with  its  gaunt,  bare,  ungainly  arms 
and  yellow  bark— the  tree  whose  presence  indicates  a  pesti- 
lential au'.  Here  was  no  luxuriant  variety  of  form,  no 
wealth  of  color,  no  festooned  creepers  nor  brilliant  flowers, 
but  a  dull  and  sad  monotony,  as  we  doubled  point  after 
point  and  saw  reach  after  reach  of  the  featureless  stream 
spread  out  before  us.  Among  the  trees  not  a  bird  was  to 
be  seen  or  heard ;  few  even  fluttered  on  the  bosom  of  the 
river.  We  watched  for  crocodiles  sunning  themselves  on 
the  sand-spits,  and  once  or  twice  thought  we  saw  them 
some  two  hundred  yards  away,  but  they  had  always  dis- 
appeared as  we  drew  nearer.  The  beast  is  quick  to  take 
alarm  at  the  slightest  noise,  and  not  only  the  paddles  of 
a  steamer,  but  even  the  plash  of  oars,  will  drive  him  into 


276 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


the  water.  For  his  cojTiess  we  were  partly  consoled  by 
the  gambols  of  the  river-horses.  All  round  the  boat  these 
creatures  were  popping  up  their  huge  snouts  and  shoul- 
ders, splashing  about,  and  then  plunging  again  into  the 
swirling  water.  Fortunately  none  rose  quite  close  to  us, 
for  the  hippopotamus,  even  if  he  means  no  mischief,  may 
easily  upset  a  boat  when  he  comes  up  under  it,  and  may  be 
induced  by  curiosity  to  submerge  it  with  one  bite  of  his 
strong  jaws,  in  which  case  the  passengers  are  likely  to 
have  fuller  opportunities  than  they  desire  of  becoming 
acquainted  with  the  crocodiles. 

Among  such  sights  the  sultry  afternoon  wore  itself 
slowly  into  night,  and  just  as  dark  fell— it  falls  suddenly 
like  a  curtain  in  these  latitudes— we  joyfully  descried  the 
steam-launch  waiting  for  us  behind  a  sandy  poiut.  Once 
embarked  on  her,  we  made  better  speed  through  the  night. 
It  was  cloudy,  with  a  struggling  moon,  which  just  showed 
us  a  labjTiath  of  flat,  densely  wooded  isles,  their  margins 
fringed  with  mangrove-trees.  Exhausted  by  a  journey  of 
more  than  thirty  hours  without  sleep,  we  were  now  so 
drowsy  as  to  be  in  constant  danger  of  falling  off  the  tiny 
launch,  which  had  neither  seats  nor  bulwarks,  and  even 
the  captain's  strong  tea  failed  to  rouse  us.  Everything 
seemed  like  a  dream— this  lonely  African  river,  with  the 
faint  moonlight  glimmering  here  and  there  upon  its  dark 
bosom,  while  the  tree-tops  upon  untrodden  islets  flitted 
past  in  a  slow,  funereal  procession,  befitting  a  land  of 
silence  and  death. 

At  last,  when  it  was  now  well  past  midnight^  a  few 
lights  were  seen  in  the  distance,  and  presently  we  were  at 
Beira.  As  we  touched  the  shore  we  were  told  that  the 
German  steamer  had  already  arrived,  two  days  before  her 
time,  and  was  to  start  in  the  morning  at  ten  o'clock.  So 


FROM  FORT  SALISBURY  TO  THE  SEA  277 


we  made  straight  for  her,  and  next  day  at  noon  sailed  for 
Delagoa  Bay. 

Beira  stands  on  a  sand-spit  between  the  ocean  and  the 
estuary  of  the  Pungwe  River.  Though  the  swamps  come 
close  up  to  it,  the  town  itself  is  tolerably  healthy  at  all 
seasons,  because  the  strong  easterly  breeze  blows  from 
the  sea  three  days  out  of  four.  Six  years  ago  there  was 
hardly  even  a  house,  and  its  quick  growth  is  entirely  due 
to  its  having  been  discovered  to  possess  the  best  harbor 
on  the  coast,  and  to  be  therefore  the  fittest  point  of  depar- 
ture from  the  sea  for  the  territories  of  the  British  South 
Africa  Company. 

In  old  days  the  chief  Portuguese  settlement  on  this  part 
of  the  coast  was  at  Sof ala,  a  few  miles  farther  to  the  south, 
which  had  been  visited  by  Vasco  da  Gama  in  A.  D.  1502, 
and  where  the  Portuguese  built  a  fort  in  1505.  It  was 
then  an  Arab  town,  and  famous  as  the  place  whence  most 
of  the  gold  brought  down  from  the  interior  was  ex- 
ported. Now  it  has  shrunk  to  insignificance,  and  Beira 
wiU  probably  become  the  most  important  haven  on  the 
coast  between  Delagoa  Bay,  to  the  south,  and  Dar-es-Sa- 
laam,  the  headquarters  of  German  administration,  to  the 
north.  The  anchorage  in  the  estuary  behind  the  sand-spit 
is  spacious  and  sheltered,  and  the  oiitrush  of  the  tide  from 
the  large  estuary  keeps  down,  by  its  constant  scour,  ac- 
cumulations of  sand  upon  the  bar.  The  rise  of  tide  at  this 
part  of  the  coast,  from  which  Madagascar  is  only  four 
hundred  miles  distant,  is  twenty-two  feet,  and  the  channel 
of  approach,  though  narrow  and  winding  (for  the  coast  is 
shallow  and  there  are  shoals  for  six  or  eight  miles  out),  is 
tolerably  well  buoyed  and  not  really  difficult.  The  rail- 
way terminus  is  being  erected  at  a  point  within  the  harbor 
where  the  sand-spit  joins  the  mainland,  and  here  a  quay 

18* 


278  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


is  also  being  bmlt  for  the  discharge  of  goods  direct  to  the 
trucks. 

The  journey  which  I  have  described,  with  all  its  diffi- 
culties, first  on  the  river  between  Beira  and  Fontesvilla, 
and  then  again  on  the  track  between  Chimoyo  and  Mtali, 
win  soon  be  a  thing  of  the  past.  Early  in  1896  the  railway 
was  opened  from  Fontesvilla  to  Beii-a,  so  that  the  tedious 
and  vexatiously  uncertain  voyage  up  or  down  the  Pungwe 
River  is  now  superseded  by  a  more  swift  if  less  exciting 
form  of  travel.  At  the  other  end  of  the  railroad  the  per- 
manent way  is  being  rapidly  laid  from  Chimoyo  to  MtaH, 
so  that  trains  will  probably  be  running  aU  the  way  from 
the  sea  to  Mtali  by  the  end  of  1897,  and  to  Fort  Salisbury 
before  the  end  of  the  century.  It  will  then  be  possible 
to  go  from  Beira  to  Mtali  in  fourteen  or  sixteen  hours, 
to  Fort  Salisbury  in  twenty  or  twenty-foui\  Should  the 
resources  of  Mashonaland  turn  out  within  the  next  few 
years  to  be  what  its  more  sanguine  inhabitants  assert,  its 
progress  wiU  be  enormously  accelerated  by  this  line,  which 
will  give  a  far  shorter  access  to  South  Central  Africa  than 
can  be  had  by  the  rival  lines  that  start  from  Cape  Town, 
from  Durban,  and  from  Delagoa  Bay. 


CHAT°TER  XVII 


OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  RESOURCES  AND  FUTURE 
OF  MATABILILAND  AND  MASHONALAND 

IN  the  last  chapter  I  have  brought  the  reader  back  to  the 
sea  from  those  inland  regions  we  have  spent  three 
chapters  in  traversing.  Now,  while  the  German  steamer 
is  threading  her  way  to  the  open  ocean  through  the  shoals 
that  surround  the  entrance  to  the  harbor  of  Beira,  the 
traveler  as  he  gazes  on  the  receding  shore  tries  to  sum 
up  his  impressions  regarding  the  economic  prospects  as 
weU  of  Mashonaland  as  of  the  other  territories  of  the 
British  South  Africa  Company.  I  will  shortly  state  these 
impressions. 

The  regions  over  which  the  British  flag  flies  between  the 
Transvaal  Republic  to  the  south  and  the  territories  of  Ger- 
many and  of  the  Congo  State  to  the  north  fall,  like  Cassar's 
Gaul,  into  three  parts.  The  first  is  the  country  north  of  the 
Zambesi.  The  eastern  section  of  this  northerly  region  is 
Nyassaland,  of  which  I  need  say  nothing,  because  it  has  very 
recently  been  described  by  the  distinguished  ofScer  (Sir 
H.  H.  Johnston)  who  administered  it  for  some  years.  The 
western  section,  which  is  under  the  control  of  the  Company, 
is  still  too  little  known  for  an  estimate  of  its  value  to  be 

279 


280  BIPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFEICA 


formed.  Though  some  parts  of  it  are  more  than  4000  feet 
above  sea-level,  most  of  it  lies  below  that  line,  which  is, 
roughly  speaking,  the  line  at  which  malarial  fevers  cease  to 
be  formidable.  Most  of  it,  therefore,  is  not  likely  to  be  fit 
for  European  colonisation,  and  the  heat  is  of  course  such 
as  to  put  European  labor  out  of  the  question.  Consider- 
able tracts  are,  however,  believed  to  be  fertile,  and  other 
tracts  good  for  pasture,  while  there  is  some  evidence  of 
the  existence  of  gold  and  other  minerals.  The  least  valu- 
able region  is  believed  to  be  that  north  of  the  Middle 
Zambesi,  where  there  are  some  dry  and  almost  barren 
districts.  Taking  it  aU  in  all,  it  is  a  country  worth  hav- 
ing; but  its  resources  wiU  have  to  be  turned  to  account 
entirely  through  black  labor,  and  as  it  is  not  likely  to  at- 
tract any  Europeans,  except  gold-prospectors,  until  the 
unoccupied  lands  south  of  the  Zambesi  have  been  fully 
taken  up,  its  development  belongs  to  a  comparatively  dis- 
tant future. 

The  second  region— that  which  Hes  south  of  the  Up- 
per Zambesi,  northwest  of  Matabililand— is  equally  Httle 
known,  and,  so  far  as  known,  is  less  attractive.  Most  of 
it  is  comparatively  low ;  much  of  it  is  arid ;  some  parts, 
especially  those  round  Lake  Ngami,  are  marshy  and  there- 
fore malarious.  It  is  thinly  peopled,  has  not  been  ascer- 
tained to  possess  any  mineral  wealth,  and  lies  far  from  any 
possible  market.  Parts  of  it  may  turn  out  to  afford  good 
pasture,  but  for  the  present  little  is  said  or  thought  about 
it,  and  no  efforts  have  been  made  to  develop  it. 

The  third  region  comprises  MatabiHland  and  Mashona- 
land,  that  is,  the  country  between  the  Transvaal  Repubhc 
and  the  valley  of  the  Middle  Zambesi,  all  of  which  is  now 
administered  by  the  Company.  T\Tiat  there  is  to  say  about 
its  prospects  maybe  summed  up  under  three  heads— health. 


FUTURE  OF  MATABILILAND  AND  MASHONALAND  281 


wealth,  and  peace.  It  is  on  these  three  things  that  its 
future  welfare  depends. 

Health.—A  large  part  of  the  country,  estimated  at  nearly 
100,000  square  miles,  belongs  to  the  upper  South  African 
Plateau,  and  has  an  elevation  of  at  least  3000  feet  above 
the  sea ;  and  of  this  area  about  26,000  square  miles  have 
an  elevation  of  4000  feet  or  upward.  This  height,  couple^ 
with  fresh  easterly  breezes  and  dry  weath:r  during  eight 
months  in  the  year,  gives  the  country  a  salubrious  and 
even  bracing  climate.  The  sun's  heat  is  tempered,  even  in 
summer,  by  cool  nights,  and  in  winter  by  cold  winds,  so  that 
European  constitutions  do  not,  as  in  India,  become  ener- 
vated and  Eurojjean  muscles  flaccid.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
send  children  home  to  England  when  they  reach  five  or  sis 
years  of  age ;  for  they  grow  up  as  healthy  as  they  would 
at  home.  Englishmen  might,  in  many  districts,  work  with 
their  hands  in  the  open  air,  were  they  so  disposed ;  it  is 
pride  and  custom,  rather  than  the  climate,  that  forbid 
them  to  do  so.  So  far,  therefore,  the  country  is  one  in 
which  an  indigenous  white  population  might  renew  itself 
from  generation  to  generation. 

Wealth.— It  was  the  hope  of  finding  gold  that  drew  the 
first  British  pioneers  to  these  regions;  it  is  that  hope 
which  keeps  settlers  there,  and  has  induced  the  ruling 
Company  to  spend  very  large  sums  in  constructing  rail- 
ways, as  well  as  in  surveying,  policing,  and  otherwise  pro- 
viding for  the  administration  of  the  country.  The  great 
question,  therefore,  is.  How  will  the  gold-reefs  turn  out? 
There  had  been  formed  before  the  end  of  1895  more 
than  two  hxmdred  development  companies,  most  of  them 
gold-mining  undertakings,  and  others  were  being  started 
up  tiU  the  eve  of  the  native  outbreak  in  March,  1896. 
Very  many  reefs  had  been  prospected  and  an  immense 


282 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFEICA 


number  of  claims  registered.  The  places  in  whieli  actual 
work  had  been  done  in  the  way  of  sinking  shafts  and 
opening  adits  were,  of  course,  much  fewer,  yet  pretty  nu- 
merous. Most  of  these  were  in  Manicaland,  near  MtaU, 
or  to  the  north  and  west  of  Fort  Salisbury,  or  to  the 
southeast  of  Gwelo,  in  the  Selukwe  district.  No  one  of 
these  workings  was  on  a  large  scale,  and  at  two  or  three 
only  had  stamping  machinery  been  set  up,  owing,  so  I  was 
told,  to  the  practically  prohibitive  cost  of  transport  from 
the  sea.  Accordingly,  there  are  very  few,  if  any,  workings 
where  enough  ore  has  been  extracted  and  treated  to  war- 
rant any  confident  predictions  as  to  the  producti\'it5-  of 
the  claim.  Numerous  as  the  claims  are,  the  value  of  all, 
or  nearly  aU,  is  still  practically  uncertain. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  in  these  mining  districts 
the  gold  occm-s  in  quartz-reefs.  Comparatively  little  is 
found  in  alluvial  deposits,  which  in  California  and  Aus- 
tralia and  the  Ural  Mountains  have  been  scarcely  less  im- 
portant than  the  quai'tz-reef s.  None  at  all  is  found  diffused 
equally  through  a  stratum  of  rock,  as  in  the  Transvaal. 
Now,  quartz-reef  mining  is  proverbially  uncertain.  The 
reefs  vary  not  only  in  thickness,  but  also  in  depth,  and  it 
is  not  yet  certain  that  any  go  very  far  beneath  the  surface. 
So,  too,  even  when  the  reef  itself  is  persistent  in  width  and 
in  depth,  its  auriferous  quality  varies  greatly.  Wbat  is 
called  the  "shoot"  of  gold  may  be  rich  for  some  yards, 
and  then  become  faint  or  wholly  disappear,  perhaps  to 
reappear  some  yards  farther.  Thus  there  must  be  a  good 
deal  of  quartz  crushed  at  different  points  before  it  can  be 
determined  what  number  of  pennyweights  or  ounces  to 
the  ton  a  given  reef,  or  a  given  part  of  a  reef,  is  likely  to 
yield. 

In  this  \incertainty  and  deficiency  of  practical  tests, 


FUTURE  OF  MATABILILAND  AND  MASHON ALAND  283 


people  have  fallen  back  upon  the  ancient  workings  as 
evidence  of  the  abundance  of  the  precious  metal.  I  have 
already  mentioned  how  numerous  these  workings  are  over 
the  country,  and  how  fully  they  appear  to  confirm  the 
stories  as  to  the  gold  which  was  brought  down  in  the 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  to  Sof  ala  and  the  other 
Portuguese  ports.  It  is  argued  that  if  gold  was  so  exten- 
sively worked  in  time  past  by  rude  races  possessing  only 
primitive  methods  and  few  tools,  the  reefs  must  have  been 
rich,  and  that  it  is  extremely  improbable  that  all,  or  nearly 
all,  the  gold  should  have  been  already  extracted.  The  old 
workings  were  open,  excavated  down  from  the  surface,  and 
they  usually  stopped  when  water  was  reached.  Is  there 
not  every  reason  to  think  that  in  many  places  the  reefs  go 
deeper,  and  that  our  improved  scientific  appliances  will 
enable  us  to  extract  far  more  of  the  metal  than  the  old 
miners  could  get  by  their  simple  breaking  and  washing  of 
the  quartz  ?  No  doubt  the  old  workings  were  carried  on 
by  labor  incomparably  cheaper  than  could  now  be  ob- 
tained ;  but  against  this  may  be  set  the  greater  efficiency 
of  the  machinery  which  will  be  at  the  disposal  of  the 
miner  when  transportation  facilities  have  been  provided. 

Arguments  of  this  kind  are  resorted  to  only  because  the 
data  which  experiment  has  hitherto  supphed  are  insuffi- 
cient. There  is  much  difference  of  opinion  in  the  country 
itself  regarding  the  value  of  the  reefs.  Some  mining  en- 
gineers whom  I  questioned  took  a  less  sanguine  view  of 
the  reefs  they  had  examined  than  did  the  general  public 
in  Fort  Salisbury  or  Bulawayo,  and  (it  need  hardly  be 
said)  a  much  less  sanguine  view  than  the  prospectuses  of 
the  companies  conveyed  to  investors  at  home.  On  the 
other  hand,  results  had  been  actually  obtained  in  some 
other  places  which  promised  extremely  well  if  the  rest  of 


284  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  APEICA 


the  reef  proved  equal  to  the  portion  sampled.  Men  of 
what  is  called  in  America  "  a  conservative  temper  "  seemed 
to  me  to  think  that  there  is  "payable  gold,"  probably 
plenty  of  gold,  in  the  country,  and  that  out  of  the  many 
companies  formed  to  work  the  claims  a  fair,  but  by  no 
means  a  large,  proportion  will  turn  out  sound  undertak- 
ings. I  doubt  if  it  will  be  possible  to  say  anything  more 
positive  until  stamping  batteries  have  been  erected  and  a 
considerable  quantity  of  quartz  has  been  treated.  This 
process  can  hardly  begin  till  the  railways  to  Bulawayo 
and  Mtah  have  been  opened,  and  those  interested  may 
therefore  have  to  wait  till  1899  or  1900  before  they  can 
feel  sure  as  to  the  value  of  their  properties. 

Other  minerals  besides  gold  have  been  found.  There  is 
iron  in  many  places,  copper  in  others.  Coal  has  been 
proved  to  exist,  of  good  if  not  first-rate  quahty,  in  the 
Zambesi  Valley  north  of  Gwelo  and  Fort  Sahsburj',  and  ii 
the  gold-reefs  tui'n  out  well  it  may  be  found  worth  while 
to  work  it. 

Regarding  the  pastoral  and  agricultiu'al  capabilities  of 
the  country  there  need  be  little  doubt.  All  of  it,  except 
those  lower  grounds  to  the  north  which  are  infested  by  the 
tsetse-fly,  is  fit  for  cattle ;  some  parts,  such  as  the  Matoppo 
HiUs  in  MatabUiland,  and  stUl  more  the  Inyanga  Plateau 
in  Mashonaland  (mentioned  in  the  last  preceding  chapter), 
offer  excellent  pasture.  The  "  high  veldt "  of  central  Mata- 
biUland  is  no  less  available  for  sheep.  Great  part  of  the 
cattle  that  were  on  the  land  have  perished  in  the  recent 
mui'rain.  But  this  plague  will  pass  by  and  may  not  re- 
turn for  many  years,  perhaps  for  centuries,  and  the  ani- 
mals that  will  be  brought  in  to  restock  the  country  will 
probably  be  of  better  breeds.  The  quality  of  the  soil  for 
the  purposes  of  tillage  has  been  tested  by  Europeans  in 


FUTURE  OF  MATABILILAND  AND  MASHON ALAND  285 

a  few  places  only.  Mucli  of  it  is  dry ;  much,  of  it,  espe- 
cially where  the  subjacent  rock  is  granitic,  is  thin  or  sandy. 
Still,  after  allowing  for  these  poorer  tracts,  there  remains 
an  immense  area  of  land  which  is  fit  to  raise  cereals  and 
some  subtropical  crops  such  as  cotton.  The  immediate 
question  is  not,  therefore,  as  to  the  productive  capacities  of 
the  country,  but  as  to  the  existence  of  a  market  for  the 
products  themselves.  Nearly  all  staple  food-stuffs  have  of 
late  years  become  so  cheap  in  the  markets  of  Europe  and 
North  America,  owing  to  the  bringing  under  evdtivation 
of  so  much  new  land  and  the  marvelous  reduction  in  the 
cost  of  ocean  carriage,  that  in  most  of  such  articles  Ma- 
shonaland,  even  with  a  railway  to  the  sea,  could  not  at 
present  compete  successfully  in  those  markets  with  India 
and  South  America  and  the  western  United  States.  It  is 
therefore  to  consumers  nearer  at  hand  that  the  country 
must  look.  If  gold-mining  prospers,  population  will  rap- 
idly increase,  and  a  market  wUl  be  created  at  the  agri- 
culturists' own  door.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  reefs 
disappoint  the  hopes  formed  of  them,  and  the  influx  of 
settlers  is  too  small  to  create  any  large  demand,  tillage 
will  spread  but  little,  and  the  country  will  be  left  to  be 
slowly  occupied  by  ranchmen.  Thus  the  growth  of  popu- 
lation and  the  prosperity  of  every  industry  will  depend 
upon  the  extent  to  which  gold-mining  can  be  profitably 
developed.  Of  course  I  speak  only  of  the  near  future. 
However  rich,  some  of  the  reefs  may  turn  out,  they  will  be 
exhausted  within  a  few  decades,  and  the  country  will  have 
to  depend  on  its  other  resources.  However  unremunera- 
tive  the  reefs  may  prove,  those  other  resources  will  in  the 
long  run  assure  to  it  a  settled  white  population  and  a 
reasonable  measure  of  prosperity.  But  these  are  days  in 
which  we  all  have  learned  to  take  short  views  of  life  for 


286  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


nations  and  countries  as  well  as  for  our  individual  selves, 
and  unquestionably  the  more  or  less  of  gold  in  its  quartz 
will  for  this  country  make  all  the  difference  between  its 
speedy  and  its  slow  development. 

Peace.— Thirdly,  there  remains  the  question  whether 
the  natives  can  be  kept  quiet.  The  first  occupation  of 
Mashonaland  was  so  tranquil,  the  fii-st  conquest  of  the  Mat- 
abili  so  swift  and  easy,  that  everybody  can  now  see  that 
some  further  trouble  ought  to  have  been  expected  before 
British  control  could  be  deemed  secm-e.  Now  there  has 
been  a  second  struggle  and  a  pacification  if  not  a  victory. 
Has  the  suppression  of  the  revolt  given  permanent  secu- 
rity? Are  the  natives  at  last  aware  that  the  superiority 
of  intelligence  and  organization  on  the  part  of  the  whites 
more  than  counterbalances  their  own  immense  preponder- 
ance in  numbers,  a  pi'eponderance  of  fully  one  hundi'ed  to 
one?  No  one  will  speak  confidently  on  this  point  who 
remembers  how  imphcit  and  how  vain  was  the  confidence 
felt  in  1895  that  the  natives  were  contented  and  submis- 
sive. Nevertheless,  there  is  reason  to  think  that  if  the 
natives  are  ruled  in  a  prudent  and  friendly  spirit,  mak- 
ing due  allowance  for  their  often  unreasonable  alarms  and 
suspicions,  no  fresh  rising  need  be  feared.  The  chief  aim 
of  the  ruling  of&cials  should  be  to  draw  and  not  to  drive 
them  to  labor,  and  to  keep  in  check  those  white  adventur- 
ers who  hang  about  the  frontiers  of  civilization  and  some- 
times ni-use  or  defraud  the  Kafir  in  a  way  which  makes 
him  hostile  to  the  next  whites,  however  well  intentioned, 
who  come  into  his  neighborhood.  It  may  be  some  years 
yet  before  the  natives  will  seek  work  at  the  mines  to  the 
extent  desired,  for  they  dislike  underground  labor.  But 
policy,  as  well  as  humanity  and  justice,  forbids  any  resort 
to  compidsion.    Though  it  is  quite  true  that  the  native 


FUTURE  OF  MATABILILAND  AND  MASHONALAND  287 

hates  to  see  tlie  white  men  come  in,  disturb  kis  old  way 
of  life,  and  take  the  best  land,  still  I  doubt  if  anything 
less  than  some  positive  grievance,  such  as  forced  labor  or 
the  taking  of  cattle,  will  be  likely  to  rouse  him  to  another 
attack  on  the  strangers.  Should  such  an  attack  occur,  it 
would  be  less  formidable  than  that  of  1896.  The  tribal 
system,  ah-eady  weakened,  tends  among  the  MatabiU  to 
dissolve  still  further,  as  was  seen  by  the  absence  of  notable 
leaders  and  the  general  want  of  plan  and  cooperation  in 
the  late  conflict.  Among  the  Mashonas  each  vUlage  is 
independent,  so  that  a  combined  effort  is  still  less  to  be 
feared.^  Moreover,  the  completion  of  the  two  railways  to 
Bulawayo  on  the  western  and  Fort  Salisbiiry  on  the  eastern 
side  of  the  country  will  enable  reinforcements  to  be  rapidly 
sent  up  from  the  coast,  and  remove  the  only  danger  that 
really  threatened  the  whites  in  1896— their  isolation  from 
help  and  from  supplies  of  ammunition  and  of  food. 

What,  then,  are  the  general  conclusions  to  which  this 
rapid  survey  leads  ?    I  will  summarize  them. 

1.  Though  parts  of  the  country  will  remain  malarious, 
great  areas  will  be  sufficiently  healthy  to  enable  a  large 
white  population  to  grow  up  and  maintain  itself  on  the 
soil  in  vigor  of  mind  and  body.  In  this  sense  it  will  be  a 
"  white  man's  country." 

2.  The  black  population  is,  however,  likely  to  remain  by 
far  the  more  numerous  element,  partly  because  it  is  better 
fitted  for  the  malarious  and  the  hottest  regions,  and  partly 
because  here,  as  elsewhere  in  South  Africa,  it  is  by  the 
blacks  that  nearly  all  manual  labor  will  continue  to  be 

1  This  very  isolation  and  independence  of  the  small  native  com- 
munities in  Mashonaland  has  retarded  the  pacification  of  the  country 
during  1896-97.  There  are  hardly  any  influential  chiefs  with  whom 
to  treat. 


288 


IMPKESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


done.  In  this  sense,  that  of  numerical  preponderance,  the 
country,  and  of  course  especially  the  parts  of  it  which  lie 
near  to  and  north  of  the  Zambesi,  -vvill  be  a  "  black  man's 
country." 

3.  The  material  progress  of  the  country',  and  the  moi'e 
or  less  rapid  increase  of  its  white  population,  will  depend, 
in  the  first  instance,  on  the  greater  or  less  success  with 
which  gold-mining  is  prosecuted.  If  the  reefs  turn  out 
well,  gi'owth  will  be  rapid ;  if  not,  it  will  be  slow.  But  ia 
the  long  run  the  soil  and  the  climate  will  be  the  main 
factors  in  material  and  social  prosperity.  These  give  abun- 
dant grounds  for  hope.  The  rainfall  is  larger  than  in  the 
interior  of  Cape  Colony,  and  much  of  the  soil  will  there- 
fore be  more  productive ;  for  other  industries  will  spring 
up,  and  some  of  them  will  remain  even  when  mining  has 
deehned. 

4.  The  political  future  wiU  depend  upon  the  growth  of 
population,  as  that  depends  upon  the  development  of 
material  resources.  Should  there  be  a  large  and  steady 
influx  of  white  settlers,  there  must  before  long  come  a  de- 
mand for  self-governing  institutions.  To  concede  these 
institutions  will  be  iu  the  well-established  line  of  British 
colonial  policy,  and  the  question  will  then  arise  whether 
the  coiTutry,  or  the  more  settled  parts  of  it,  should  form  a 
separate  colony  or  be  incorporated  with  Cape  Colony  (as 
British  Bechuanaland  recently  was).  That  one  foimd  in 
1895  very  little  disposition  among  the  white  settlers  to 
gi'umble  at  the  administration  seemed  chiefly  due  to  the 
great  personal  popularity  of  the  genial  Administrator,  Dr. 
L.  S.  Jameson.  A  committee  of  the  House  of  Commons 
was  recently  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  use  the  Company 
had  made  of  its  powers,  but  it  has  not  yet  (July,  1897) 
reported  upon  that  subject. 


FUTURE  OF  MATABILILAND  AND  MASHONALAND  289 

5.  Whether  the  present  form  of  government  by  the 
British  South  Africa  Company,  with  the  cooperation  of  a 
council  partly  nominated  by  the  High  Commissioner  for 
South  Africa,  and  under  the  general  oversight  of  that 
officer,  should  for  the  present  continue,  or  whether,  as 
some  have  urged,  these  vast  territories  should  come  under 
the  direct  control  of  the  Imperial  Government  as  a  Crown 
Colonj^,  is  a  question  that  need  not  be  discussed  here.  It 
must,  however,  be  ere  long  considered  by  the  British  Parlia- 
ment and  Legislature ;  and  it  will  give  them  some  trouble, 
for  it  is  involved  with  personal  questions  on  one  side,  and 
with  financial  questions  on  the  other. 

6.  Leaving  out  of  sight  the  still  unsettled  problem  of  the 
mineral  wealth  of  these  territories,  they  are  in  other  re- 
spects one  of  the  most  promising  parts  of  South  Africa. 
I  have  remarked  that  as  regards  pasture  and  agriculture 
they  are  superior  to  the  inland  parts  of  Cape  Colony.  They 
are  in  these  points  also  superior  to  the  Transvaal,  and  stiU 
more  plainly  superior  to  the  neighboring  possessions  of 
Germany  and  Portugal.  Portuguese  East  Africa  is  fever- 
stricken.  German  East  Africa  is  in  many  places  barren 
and  almost  everywhere  malarious.  Its  Administrator  re- 
cently observed  that  there  was  not  a  square  mile  of  it  free 
from  fever.  German  Southwest  Africa  is  mostly  desert, 
an  arid  and  irreclaimable  desert. 

To  the  English  race  in  South  Africa  the  acquisition  of 
these  regions,  or  at  least  of  the  parts  south  of  the  Zambesi, 
has  been  an  immense  poUtical  and  economic  advantage. 
It  has  established  their  predominance  and  provided  a  se- 
curity against  any  serious  attempt  to  dislodge  them.  And 
a  philosophic  observer  without  predilections  for  any  one 
state  or  people  would,  it  is  conceived,  hold  that  the  English 
race  is  more  likely  to  serve  what  are  termed  the  interests  of 

19 


290 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


civilization  ia  this  part  of  Africa  than  is  any  other  race. 

The  Portuguese  have  neither  energy  nor  capital.  The  Ger- 
mans, with  energy  and  with  capital,  have  not  the  requisite 
practice  in  independent  colonization,  nor  perhaps  the  taste 
for  it.  The  South  African  Dutch  Boers,  who  have  within 
the  last  fifteen  years  been  more  than  once  on  the  point  of 
occupying  the  country,  are,  with  all  their  good  qualities,  a 
backward  people,  who,  had  they  prevailed,  would  have  done 
little  more  than  squat  here  and  there  over  the  country  with 
their  cattle,  and  carry  on  an  incessant  desultory  war  with 
the  natives.  Whether  it  is  really  desirable  that  the  waste 
lands  of  the  world  shovdd  be  quickly  brought  under  settled 
order  and  have  theii'  resources  developed  with  aU  possible 
speed,  is  a  question  on  which  much  might  be  said.  But 
assuming,  as  most  people  (perhaps  too  hastily)  do  assume, 
that  this  sudden  development  is  desirable,  the  strong  and 
strenuous  man  who,  with  little  encouragement  from  the 
government  of  his  country,  founded  the  British  South 
Africa  Company  and  acquii-ed  these  territories  for  his 
countrymen  took  one  of  the  most  fateful  steps  that  states- 
man or  conqueror  has  ever  taken  in  the  African  continent. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
THEOUGH  NATAL  TO  THE  TRANSVAAL 

THERE  are  two  ways  of  reaching  the  "Witwatersrand 
gold-fields,  now  the  central  point  of  attraction  in 
South  Africa,  from  the  southeast  coast.  One  route 
starts  from  Delagoa  Bay,  a  place  of  so  much  importance 
as  to  deserve  a  short  description.  It  is  a  piece  of  water 
protected  from  the  ocean  by  Inyac>.  Island,  and  stretch- 
ing some  twenty  miles  or  more  north  and  south.  At  the 
north  end,  where  two  rivers  discharge  their  waters  into 
it,  is  an  almost  landlocked  inlet,  on  the  east  side  of  which 
stands  the  town  of  Louren^o  Marques,  so  called  from  the 
Portuguese  captain  who  first  explored  it  in  1544,  though 
it  had  been  visited  in  1502  by  Vasco  da  Grama.  The  ap- 
proach to  this  harbor  is  long  and  circiiitous,  for  a  vessel 
has  to  wind  hither  and  thither  to  avoid  shoals ;  and  as 
the  channel  is  ill  buoyed,  careful  captains  sometimes  wait 
for  the  tide  to  be  at  least  half  full  before  they  cross  the 
shallowest  part,  where  there  may  be  only  twenty  feet  of 
water  at  low  tide.  Within  the  harbor  there  is  plenty 
of  good  deep  anchorage  opposite  the  town,  and  a  still 
more  sheltered  spot  is  found  a  little  farther  up  the  inlet 
in  a  sort  of  lagoon.  The  town,  which  is  growing  fast, 
but  still  in  a  rough  and  unsightly  condition,  runs  for  half 

291 


292  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


a  mile  along  the  bay  fi-ont,  and  behind  rises  up  the  slope 
of  a  hiU  facing  to  the  west.  The  site  looks  healthy 
enough,  though  it  would  have  been  better  to  plant  the 
houses  nearer  to  the  point  which  shields  the  anchorage. 
But  behind  the  town  to  the  east  and  north  there  are  large 
swamps,  reeking  with  malaria;  and  the  residents  have, 
therefore,  though  of  coui-se  much  less  in  the  dry  season, 
to  be  on  their  guard  against  fever,  which,  indeed,  few  who 
remain  for  a  twelvemonth  escape.  The  Portuguese  gov- 
ernment is  unfortunately  hard  pressed  for  money,  and 
has  not  been  able  to  complete  the  projected  quays,  nor 
even  to  provide  a  custom-house  and  warehouses  fit  to  re- 
ceive and  store  the  goods  intended  for  the  Transvaal, 
which  are  now  discharged  here  in  large  quantities.  In 
November,  1895,  everything  was  in  confusion,  and  the 
merchants  loud  in  their  complaints.  Business  is  mostly 
in  English  and  German,  scarcely  at  all  in  Portuguese, 
hands.  With  better  management  and  the  expenditure  of 
a  little  money,  both  the  approach  to  the  harbor  and  the 
town  itself  might  be  immensely  improved ;  and  although 
the  country  round  is  not  attractive,  being  mostly  either 
sandy  or  marshy,  the  trade  with  the  Transvaal  gold-fields 
seems  so  certain  to  develop  and  maintain  itself  that  ex- 
penditure would  be  well  bestowed.  It  has  often  been 
suggested  that  Great  Britain  should  buy  the  place,  but 
the  sensitive  pride  of  Portugal  would  probably  refuse 
any  offer. 

The  other  port  which  now  competes  for  the  Transvaal 
trade  with  Delagoa  Bay  is  Durban,  the  largest  town  in 
the  British  colony  of  Natal.  It  stands  on  a  sandy  flat 
from  which  a  spit  of  land  runs  out  into  the  sea  between 
the  open  ocean  and  the  harbor.  The  harbor  is  com- 
modious, but  the  bar  on  the  channel  connecting  it  with 


THEOUGH  NATAL  TO  THE  TRANSVAAL  293 

the  ocean  has  hitherto  made  it  unavailable  except  for 
vessels  of  light  draft.  Much  has  been  done  by  the  colony 
to  deepen  the  channel,  and  at  the  time  of  my  visit  a  new 
dredger  was  on  its  way,  from  the  exertions  of  which 
great  things  were  hoped.  Heretofore  the  largest  steamers 
have  had  to  lie  out  in  the  ocean  a  mile  or  two  away,  and 
as  there  is  usually  a  swell,  in  which  the  little  steam- 
tenders  pitch  about  pretty  freely,  the  process  of  dis- 
embarkation is  trying  to  many  passengers.  There  is, 
however,  good  reason  to  hope  that  the  bar  difficulties 
may  ultimately  be  overcome,  as  they  have  already  been 
greatly  reduced  ;  and  the  harbor,  once  you  are  within  it, 
is  perfectly  sheltered. 

Durban  is  a  neat  and,  in  some  parts,  even  handsome 
town,  with  wide  and  weU-kept  streets,  to  which  the  use  of 
slender  jinrikishas  (drawn  by  active  Zulus  or  Indians) 
instead  of  cabs,  as  well  as  the  number  of  white-clad 
coolies  in  the  streets,  gives  a  curious  Eastern  touch,  in 
keeping  with  the  semi-tropical  vegetation.  The  climate 
is  sultry  during  three  months,  but  very  agreeable  for  the 
rest  of  the  year.  Many  of  the  whites,  however, —  there  are 
14,000  of  them,  and  about  the  same  number  of  Kafirs  and 
immigrants  from  India, —  live  on  the  hill  of  Berea  to  the 
north  of  the  town,  where  the  sea  breeze  gives  relief  even 
in  the  hottest  weather.  This  suburb  of  Berea  is  one  of 
the  prettiest  spots  in  South  Africa.  The  name,  of  which 
the  origin  seems  to  have  been  forgotten  by  the  citizens 
of  to-day,  comes  from  a  missionary  settlement  planted 
here  in  very  early  days,  and  called  after  the  Berea  men- 
tioned in  Acts  xvii.  10,  11.  It  has  been  skilfully  laid 
out  in  winding  roads,  bordered  by  tasteful  villas  which 
are  surrounded  by  a  wealth  of  trees  and  flowering  shrubs, 
and  command  admirable  views  of  the  harbor,  of  the  bold 

19* 


294  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


bluff  which  rises  west  of  the  harbor,  and  of  the  ocean. 
The  municipality  bought  the  land,  and  by  selling  or  leas- 
ing it  in  lots  at  increased  prices  has  secui-ed  a  revenue 
which  has  kept  local  taxation  at  a  very  low  figure,  and  has 
enabled  many  town  improvements  to  be  made  and  many 
enterprises  to  be  worked  for  the  benefit  of  the  citizens. 
Dui-ban  has  been  a  pioneer  of  what  is  caUed,  in  its  ex- 
tremer  forms,  municipal  socialism ;  and  it  enjoys  the  repu- 
tation of  being  the  best  managed  and  most  progressive 
town  in  all  South  Africa.  It  possesses  among  other 
things  a  fine  town-haU  with  a  lofty  tower,  built  by  the 
exertions  of  the  present  mayor,  a  deservedly  respected 
Scotch  merchant. 

East  of  Durban  a  low  and  fertile  strip  of  country 
stretches  along  the  coast,  most  of  which  is  occupied  by 
sugar  plantations,  tUled  by  cooUes  brought  fi-om  India, 
because  the  native  Kafir  does  not  take  kindly  to  steady 
labor.  North  of  the  town  the  country  rises,  and  here 
the  patient  industry  of  other  Indians  has  formed  a  great 
mass  of  gardens,  where  subtropical  and  even  some  tropi- 
cal fruits  are  grown  in  great  quantities,  and  have  now 
begun  to  be  exported  to  Europe.  Across  this  high  ground, 
and  through  and  over  the  stiU  higher  hills  which  rise  far- 
ther inland,  the  railway  takes  its  course,  often  in  steep 
inclines,  to  the  town  of  Pietermaritzburg,  eighty  miles 
distant,  where  the  Governor  dwells,  and  a  small  British 
garrison  is  placed.  Durban  was  from  the  fii'st  an  English 
town,  and  the  white  people  who  inhabit  it  are  practically 
all  English.  Maritzburg  was  founded  by  the  emigrant 
Boers  who  left  Cape  Colony  in  the  Great  Trek  of  1836, 
and  descended  hither  across  the  Quathlamba  Mountains 
in  1838.  Its  population  is,  however,  nowadaj's  much  more 
British  than  Boer,  but  the  streets  retain  an  old-fashioned 


THROUGH  NATAL  TO  THE  TRANSVAAL  295 


half -Dutch  air ;  and  the  handsome  Parliament  House  and 
Government  Offices  look  somewhat  strange  in  a  quiet  and 
straggling  country  town.  Its  height  above  the  sea  (2500 
feet)  and  its  dry  climate  make  it  healthy,  though,  as  it  lies 
in  a  hollow  among  high  hills,  it  is  rather  hotter  in  sum- 
mer than  suits  English  tastes.  The  surrounding  country 
is  pretty,  albeit  rather  bare ;  nor  is  the  Australian  wattle, 
of  which  there  are  now  large  plantations  in  the  neigh- 
borhood, a  very  attractive  tree. 

This  seems  the  fittest  place  for  a  few  words  on  the 
public  life  of  Natal,  the  British  colony  which  has  been 
the  latest  to  receive  responsible  self-government.  This 
gift  was  bestowed  upon  it  in  1893,  not  without  some 
previous  hesitation,  for  the  whole  white  population  was 
then  about  46,000,  and  the  adult  males  were  little  over 
15,000.  However,  the  system  then  estabhshed  seems  to 
be  working  smoothly.  There  is  a  cabinet  of  five  min- 
isters, with  two  Houses  of  Legislature,  an  Assembly  of 
thirty-seven  and  a  Council  of  eleven  members,  the  former 
elected  for  four  years  at  most  (subject  to  the  chance  of 
a  dissolution),  the  latter  appointed  by  the  Governor  for 
ten  years.  No  regular  parties  have  so  far  been  formed, 
nor  can  it  yet  be  foreseen  on  what  lines  they  will  form 
themselves,  for  the  questions  that  have  chiefly  occupied 
the  legislature  are  questions  on  which  few  differences 
of  principle  have  as  yet  emerged.  All  the  whites  are 
agreed  in  desiring  to  exclude  Kafirs  and  newcomers 
from  India  from  the  electoral  franchise.  All  are  agreed 
in  approving  the  present  low  tariff,  which  is  for  revenue 
only ;  and  Natal  has  one  of  the  lowest  among  the  tariffs 
in  force  in  British  colonies.  (The  ordinary  ad  valorem  rate 
is  five  per  cent.)  Even  between  the  citizens  of  English  and 
those  of  Dutch  origin,  the  latter  less  than  one  fourth  of 


296  IMPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFEICA 


the  whole  and  living  chiefly  in  the  country,  there  has  been 
but  little  antagonism,  for  the  Dutch,  being  less  numerous 
than  in  Cape  Colony,  are  much  less  organized.  Among 
the  English,  British  sentiment  is  strong,  for  the  war  of 
1881  with  the  Transvaal  people  not  merely  reawakened 
the  memories  of  the  Boer  siege  of  Dui'ban  in  1842,  but 
provoked  an  anti-Boer  feeling,  which  is  kept  in  check 
only  by  the  necessity  of  conciliating  the  Transvaal  gov- 
ernment in  order  to  secure  as  large  as  possible  a  share  of 
the  import  trade  into  that  country.  As  the  Natal  line  of 
railway  is  a  competitor  for  this  trade  with  the  Cape  lines, 
as  well  as  with  the  line  from  Delagoa  Bay,  there  is  a  keen 
feeling  of  rivalry  toward  Cape  Colony,  which  is  thought 
to  have  been  unfriendly  in  annexing  the  native  territo- 
ries of  Griqualand  East  and  Pondoland,  which  lie  to  the 
west  of  Natal,  and  which  the  latter  colony  had  hoped 
some  day  or  other  to  absorb.  When  her  hopes  of 
territorial  extension  were  closed  on  that  side.  Natal 
began  to  cast  longing  eyes  on  Zululand,  a  hilly  region 
of  rich  pastures  which  is  at  present  directly  administered 
by  the  Imperial  Government,  and  which  contains  not 
only  some  gold-reefs  of  stUl  unascertained  value,  but 
also  good  beds  of  coal.  And  now  (1897)  the  home  gov- 
ernment has  consented  to  allow  Natal  to  absorb  both 
Zululand  and  the  Tonga  country  aU  the  way  north  to  the 
Portuguese  frontier. 

The  political  life  of  Natal  flows  in  a  tranquil  current, 
because  the  population  is  not  merely  small,  but  also  scat- 
tered over  a  relatively  wide  area,  with  only  two  centers 
of  population  that  rise  above  the  i*ank  of  villages.  The 
people,  moreover,  lead  an  easy  and  quiet  life.  They  are 
fairly  well  off,  occupying  large  cattle-farms,  and  with  no 
great  inducement  to  bring  a  great  deal  of  laud  under 


THROUGH  NATAL  TO  THE  TRANSVAAL  297 

tillage,  because  the  demand  for  agricultural  produce  is 
still  comparatively  small.  Not  much  over  one  fortieth  part 
of  the  surface  is  cultivated,  of  which  about  two  hundred 
thousand  acres  are  cultivated  by  Europeans,  of  course  by 
the  hands  of  colored  laborers.  Sugar  is  raised  along  the 
coast,  and  tea  has  lately  begun  to  be  grown.  The  Na- 
talians  have,  perhaps,  become  the  less  energetic  in  devel- 
oping the  natural  resources  of  their  country  because 
thrice  in  their  recent  history  the  equable  course  of  devel- 
opment has  been  disturbed.  In  1871  many  of  the  most 
active  spirits  were  drawn  away  to  the  newly  discovered 
diamond-fields  of  Kimberley.  In  1879  the  presence  of 
the  large  British  force  collected  for  the  great  Zulu  war 
created  a  sudden  demand  for  all  sorts  of  food-stuffs  and 
forage,  which  disappeared  when  the  troops  were  removed ; 
and  since  1886  the  rapid  growth  of  the  Witwatersrand 
gold-fields,  besides  carrying  off  the  more  adventurous 
spirits,  has  set  so  many  people  speculating  in  the  shares 
of  mining  companies  that  steady  industry  has  seemed  a 
slow  and  tame  affair.  At  present  not  many  immigrants 
come  to  Natal  to  settle  down  as  farmers ;  and  the  colony 
grows  but  slowly  in  wealth  and  population.  Neverthe- 
less, its  prosperity  in  the  long  run  seems  assured.  It  is 
more  favored  by  soil  and  by  sky  than  most  parts  of  Cape 
Colony.  It  has  an  immense  resource  in  its  extensive 
coal-fields.  Its  trade  and  railway  traffic  are  increasing. 
In  proximity  to  these  coal-fields  it  has  deposits  of  iron 
which  will  one  day  support  large  industrial  communities. 
And  its  inhabitants  are  of  good,  solid  stuff,  both  English, 
Dutch,  and  German,  for  there  are  many  German  immi- 
grants. No  British  colony  can  show  a  population  of 
better  quality,  and  few  perhaps  one  equally  good. 
Besides  the  railway  question,  which  is  bound  up  with 


298 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


the  problem  of  the  port  of  Durban  and  its  bar,  the  ques- 
tion which  has  most  interest  for  the  people  of  Natal  is 
that  of  the  colored  population,  Kafir  and  Indian.  The 
Kafirs,  mostly  of  Zulu  race,  number  460,000,  about  ten 
times  the  whites,  who  are  estimated  at  50,000.  Nearly 
all  live  under  tribal  law  in  their  own  communities, 
owning  some  cattle,  and  tilling  patches  of  land  which 
amount  in  all  to  about  three  hundred  and  twenty  thou- 
sand acres.  The  law  of  the  colony  wisely  preserves 
them  from  the  use  of  European  spirits.  A  few  of  the 
children  are  taught  in  mission  schools, —  the  only  edu- 
cational machinery  pro^dded  for  them, —  and  a  very  few 
have  been  converted  to  Christianity,  but  the  vast  ma- 
jority are  little  influenced  by  the  whites  in  any  way. 
They  are  generally  peaceable,  and  perpetrate  few  crimes 
of  violence  upon  whites ;  but  however  peaceable  they  may 
have  shown  themselves,  their  numerical  preponderance  is 
disquieting.  A  Kafir  may,  by  the  Grovernor's  gift,  obtain 
the  electoral  suffrage  when  he  has  lived  under  European 
law  for  at  least  seven  years;  but  it  has  been  bestowed 
on  extremely  few,  so  that  in  fact  the  native  does  not 
come  into  politics  at  all.  The  Indian  immigrants,  now 
reckoned  at  50,000,  are  of  two  classes.  Some  are  coolies, 
who  have  been  imported  from  India  under  indentures 
binding  them  to  work  for  a  term  of  years,  chiefly  on  the 
sugar  plantations  of  the  coast.  Many  of  these  return  at 
the  expiration  of  the  term,  but  more  have  remained,  and 
have  become  artisans  in  the  towns  or  cultivators  of  gar- 
den patches.  The  other  class,  less  numerous,  but  better 
educated  and  more  intelligent,  consists  (besides  some  free 
immigrants  of  the  humbler  class)  of  so-called  "Arabs"  — 
Mohammedans,  chiefly  from  Bombay  and  the  ports  near 
it,  or  from  Zanzibar — who  conduct  retail  trade,  espe- 


THROUGH  NATAL  TO  THE  TRANSVAAL  299 

cially  with  the  natives,  and  sometimes  become  rich. 
Clever  dealers,  and  willing  to  sell  for  small  profits,  they 
have  practically  cut  out  the  European  from  business  with 
the  natives,  and  thereby  incurred  his  dislike.  The  num- 
ber of  the  Indians  who,  under  the  previous  franchise  law, 
were  acquiring  electoral  rights  had  latterly  grown  so  fast 
that,  partly  owing  to  the  dislike  I  have  just  mentioned, 
partly  to  an  honest  apprehension  that  the  Indian  element, 
as  a  whole,  might  become  unduly  powerful  in  the  elec- 
torate, an  act  was  recently  (1894)  passed  by  the  colonial 
legislature  to  exclude  them  from  the  suffrage.  The  home 
government  was  not  quite  satisfied  with  the  terms  in 
which  this  act  was  originally  framed,  but  has  now  (1897) 
approved  an  amended  act  which  provides  that  no  persons 
shall  be  hereafter  admitted  to  be  electors  "  who  (not 
being  of  European  origin)  are  natives  or  descendants  in 
the  male  line  of  natives  of  countries  which  have  not 
hitherto  possessed  elective  representative  institutions 
founded  on  the  parliamentary  franchise,  unless  they  first 
obtain  from  the  Governor  in  CouncU  an  order  exempting 
them  from  the  provisions  of  this  act."  Under  this  statute 
the  right  of  suffrage  will  be  withheld  from  natives  of 
India  and  other  non-European  countries,  such  as  China, 
which  have  no  representative  government,  though  power 
is  reserved  for  the  government  to  admit  specially  favored 
persons.  In  1897  another  act  was  passed  (and  ap- 
proved by  the  home  government)  which  permits  the 
colonial  executive  to  exclude  all  immigrants  who  cannot 
write  in  European  characters  a  letter  applying  to  be  ex- 
empted from  the  provisions  of  the  law.  It  is  intended  by 
this  measure  to  stop  the  entry  of  unindentured  Indian 
immigrants  of  the  humbler  class. 
I  have  referred  particularly  to  this  matter  because  it 


300  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


illustrates  one  of  the  difficulties  which  arise  wherever 
a  higher  and  a  lower,  or  a  stronger  and  a  weaker,  race  live 
together  under  a  democratic  government.  To  make  race 
or  color  or  religion  a  ground  of  political  disability  runs 
counter  to  what  used  to  be  deemed  a  fundamental  prin- 
ciple of  democracy,  and  to  what  has  been  made  (by  recent 
amendments)  a  doctrine  of  the  American  Constitution. 
To  admit  to  full  political  rights,  in  deference  to  abstract 
theory,  persons  who,  whether  from  deficient  education  or 
want  of  experience  as  citizens  of  a  free  country,  are  ob- 
viously unfit  to  exercise  political  power  is,  or  may  be, 
dangerous  to  any  commonwealth.  Some  way  out  of  the 
contradiction  has  to  be  found,  and  the  democratic  Southern 
States  of  the  North  American  Union  and  the  oligarchical 
republic  of  Hawaii,  as  well  as  the  South  African  colonies, 
are  aU  trying  to  find  such  a  way.  Natal,  where  the  whites 
are  in  a  small  minority,  now  refuses  the  suffrage  to  both 
Indians  and  Kafirs ;  while  Cape  Colony,  with  a  much  lar- 
ger proportion  of  whites,  excludes  the  bulk  of  her  colored 
people  by  the  judicious  application  of  an  educational  and 
property  qualification.  The  two  Boer  republics  deny  the 
supposed  democratic  principle,  and  are  therefore  consis- 
tent in  denying  political  rights  to  people  of  color.  The 
Australian  colonies  have  taken  an  even  more  drastic 
method.  Most  of  them  forbid  the  Chinese  to  enter  the 
country,  and  admit  the  dark-skinned  Polynesian  only  as  a 
coolie  laborer,  to  be  sent  back  when  his  term  is  complete. 
France,  however,  is  more  indulgent,  and  in  some  of  her 
tropical  colonies  extends  the  right  of  voting,  both  for  local 
assemblies  and  for  members  of  the  National  Assembly  in 
Paris,  to  aU  citizens,  without  distinction  of  race  or  color. 

Maritzburg  is  a  cheerful  little  place,  with  an  agreeable 
society,  centered  in  Government  House,  and  composed 


THROUGH  NATAL  TO  THE  TRANSVAAL  301 


of  diverse  elements,  for  the  ministers  of  state  and  other 
officials,  the  clergy,  the  judges,  and  the  officers  of  the  gar- 
rison, furnish  a  number,  considerable  for  so  small  a 
town,  of  capable  and  cultivated  men.  There  are  plenty 
of  excui'sions,  the  best  of  which  is  to  the  beautiful  falls 
of  the  Umgeni  at  Howick,  where  a  stream,  large  after  the 
rains,  leaps  over  a  sheet  of  basalt  into  a  noble  cirque  sur- 
rounded by  precipices.  Passing  not  far  from  these  falls,  the 
railway  takes  its  northward  course  to  the  Transvaal  bor- 
der. The  line  climbs  higher  and  higher,  and  the  country^ 
as  one  recedes  from  the  sea,  grows  always  drier  and  more 
arid.  The  larger  streams  flow  in  channels  cut  so  deep  that 
their  water  is  seldom  available  for  irrigation ;  but  where 
a  rivulet  has  been  led  out  over  level  or  gently  sloping 
ground,  the  abundance  of  the  crop  bears  witness  to 
the  richness  of  the  soil  and  the  power  of  the  sun.  The 
country  is  everywhere  hilly,  and  the  scenery,  which  is 
sometimes  striking,  especially  along  the  banks  of  the 
Tugela  and  the  Buffalo  rivers,  would  be  always  pictu- 
resque were  it  not  for  the  bareness  of  the  foregrounds, 
which  seldom  present  anything  except  scattered  patches 
of  thorny  wood  to  vary  the  severity  of  the  landscape. 
Toward  the  base  of  the  great  Qxiathlamba  or  Drakens- 
berg  Range,  far  to  the  west  of  the  main  line  of  railway, 
there  is  some  very  grand  scenery,  for  the  mountains  which 
on  the  edge  of  Basutoland  rise  to  a  height  of  10,000  feet 
break  down  toward  Natal  in  tremendous  precipices.  A 
considerable  coal-field  lies  near  the  village  appropriately 
named  Newcastle,  and  there  are  valuable  deposits  near  the 
village  of  Dundee  also,  whither  a  branch  line  which  serves 
the  coUieries  turns  off  to  the  east.  Traveling  steadily  to 
the  north,  the  country  seems  more  and  more  a  wilderness, 
in  which  the  tiny  hamlets  come  at  longer  and  longer  in- 


302  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


tervals.  The  ranehing-farms  are  very  large, — usually  six 
thousand  acres, —  so  there  are  few  settlers;  and  the  Kafirs 
are  also  few,  for  this  high  region  is  cold  in  winter,  and  the 
dry  soil  does  not  favor  cultivation.  At  last,  as  one  rounds 
a  corner  after  a  steep  ascent,  a  bold  mountain  comes  into 
sight,  and  to  the  east  of  it,  connecting  it  with  a  lower  hill, 
a  ridge  or  neck,  pierced  by  a  tunnel.  The  ridge  is  Laing's 
Nek,  and  the  mountain  is  Majuba  Hill,  spots  famous  iu 
South  African  history  as  the  scenes  of  the  battles  of  1881 
in  the  Transvaal  War  of  Independence.  Few  conflicts  in 
which  so  small  a  number  of  combatants  were  engaged 
have  so  much  affected  the  course  of  history  as  these  bat- 
tles; and  the  interest  they  still  excite  justifies  a  short  de- 
scription of  the  place. 

Laing's  Nek,  a  ridge  5500  feet  above  the  sea  and  rising 
rather  steeply  about  300  feet  above  its  southern  base, 
is  part  of  the  Quathlamba  watershed,  which  separates 
the  streams  that  run  south  into  the  Indian  Ocean  from 
those  which  the  Vaal  on  the  north  carries  into  the  Orange 
River  and  so  to  the  Atlantic.  It  is  in  fact  on  the  south- 
eastern edge  of  that  great  interior  table-land  of  which 
I  have  so  often  spoken.  Across  it  there  ran  in  1881,  and 
still  runs,  the  principal  road  from  Natal  into  the  Transvaal 
Republic, — there  was  no  railway  here  in  1881, —  and  by 
it  therefore  the  British  forces  that  were  proceeding  from 
Natal  to  reconquer  the  Transvaal  after  the  outbreak  of 
December,  1880,  had  to  advance  to  relieve  the  garrisons 
beleaguered  in  the  latter  country.  Accordingly,  the  Boer 
levies,  numbering  about  a  thousand  men,  resolved  to 
occupy  it,  and  on  January  27  they  encamped  with  their 
wagons  just  behind  the  top  of  the  ridge.  The  frontier 
lies  five  miles  farther  to  the  north,  so  that  at  the  Nek 
itself  they  were  in  the  territory  of  Natal.    The  British 


THROUGH  NATAL  TO  THE  TRANSVAAL  303 


force  of  about  one  thousand  men,  with  a  few  guns,  arrived 
the  same  day  at  a  point  four  miles  to  the  south,  and 
pitched  their  tents  on  a  hillside  still  called  Prospect 
Camp,  under  the  command  of  General  Sir  Gfeorge  Colley, 
a  brave  officer,  well  versed  in  the  history  and  theory  of 
war,  but  with  little  experience  of  operations  in  the  field. 
Undervaluing  the  rude  militia  opposed  to  him,  he  next 
day  attacked  their  position  on  the  Nek  in  front ;  but  the 
British  troops,  exposed,  as  they  climbed  the  slope,  to  a 
weU-direeted  fire  from  the  Boers,  who  were  in  perfect 
shelter  along  the  top  of  the  ridge,  suffered  so  severely 
that  they  had  to  halt  and  retire  before  they  could  reach 
the  top  or  even  see  their  antagonists.  A  monument  to 
Colonel  Deane,  who  led  his  column  up  the  slope  and  fell 
there  pierced  by  a  bullet,  marks  the  spot.  Three  weeks 
later  (after  an  unfortunate  skirmish  on  the  8th),  judging 
the  Nek  to  be  impregnable  in  front,  for  his  force  was 
small,  but  noting  that  it  was  commanded  by  the  heights 
of  Majuba  Hill,  which  rise  1400  feet  above  it  on  the  west, 
the  British  general  determined  to  seize  that  point.  Ma- 
juba is  composed  of  alternate  strata  of  sandstone  and 
shale  lying  nearly  horizontally,  and  capped — as  is  often 
the  case  in  these  mountains  —  by  a  bed  of  hard  igneous 
rock  (a  porphyritic  greenstone).  The  top  is  less  than  a 
mile  in  circumference,  depressed  some  sixty  or  seventy 
feet  in  the  center,  so  as  to  form  a  sort  of  saucer-like 
basin.  Here  has  been  built  a  tiny  cemetery,  in  which 
some  of  the  British  soldiers  who  were  killed  lie  buried, 
and  hard  by,  on  the  spot  where  he  fell,  is  a  stone  in 
memory  of  General  Colley.  The  hiU  proper  is  fully 
eight  hundred  feet  above  its  base,  and  the  base  about 
six  hundred  feet  above  Laing's  Nek,  with  which  it  is 
connected  by  a  gently  sloping  ridge  less  than  a  mile  long. 


304  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  ATEICA 


It  takes  an  hour's  steady  walking  to  reach  the  summit 
from  the  Nek ;  the  latter  part  of  the  ascent  being  steep, 
with  an  angle  of  from  twenty  to  thu-ty  degrees,  and  here 
and  there  escarped  into  low  faces  of  cliff  in  which  the 
harder  sandstone  strata  are  exposed. 

The  British  general  started  on  the  night  of  Saturday, 
February  26,  from  Prospect  Camp,  left  two  detach- 
ments on  the  way,  and  reached  the  top  of  the  hiU,  after 
some  hard  climbing  up  the  steep  west  side,  at  3  a.m. 
with  something  over  four  hundred  men.  When  day 
broke,  at  5  a.m.,  the  Boers  below  on  the  Nek  were  aston- 
ished to  see  British  redcoats  on  the  sky-line  of  the  hill 
high  above  them,  and  at  first,  thinking  their  position 
turned,  began  to  in  span  their  oxen  and  prepare  for  a 
retreat.  Presently,  when  no  artillery  played  upon  them 
from  the  hill,  and  no  sign  of  a  hostile  movement  came 
from  Prospect  Camp  in  front  of  them  to  the  south,  they 
took  heart,  and  a  small  party  started  out,  moved  along 
the  ridge  toward  Majuba  Hill,  and  at  last,  finding  them- 
selves still  unopposed,  began  to  mount  the  hill  itself.  A 
second  party  supported  this  forlorn  hope,  and  kept  up  a 
fire  upon  the  hUl  while  the  first  party  climbed  the  steepest 
parts.  Each  set  of  skirmishers,  as  they  came  within 
range,  opened  fire  at  the  British  above  them,  who,  ex- 
posed on  the  upper  slope  and  along  the  edge  of  the  top, 
offered  an  easy  mark,  while  the  Boers,  moving  along  far 
below,  and  in  places  sheltered  by  the  precipitous  bits  of 
the  slope,  where  the  hard  beds  of  sandstone  run  in  minia- 
ture cliffs  along  the  hillside,  did  not  suffer  in  the  least 
from  the  irregular  shooting  which  a  few  of  the  British 
tried  to  direct  on  them.  Thus  steadily  advancing,  and 
firing  as  they  advanced,  the  Boers  reached  at  last  the 
edge  of  the  hilltop,  where  the  British  had  neglected  to 


THROUGH  NATAL  TO  THE  TRANSVAAL  305 

erect  any  proper  breastworks  or  shelter,  and  began  to 
pour  in  their  bullets  with  still  more  deadly  effect  upon 
the  hesitating  and  already  demoralized  troops  in  the  sau- 
cer-like hollow  beneath  them.  A  charge  with  the  bayonet 
might  even  then  have  saved  the  day.  But  though  the 
order  was  given  to  fix  bayonets,  the  order  to  charge  did 
not  follow.  Greneral  CoUey  fell  shot  through  the  head, 
while  his  forces  broke  and  fled  down  the  steep  declivities 
to  the  south  and  west,  where  many  were  kOled  by  the 
Boer  fire.  The  British  loss  was  ninety-two  killed,  one 
hundred  and  thirty-four  wounded,  and  fifty-nine  taken 
prisoners ;  while  the  Boers,  who  have  given  their  number 
at  four  hundred  and  fifty,  lost  only  one  man  killed  and 
five  wounded.  No  wonder  they  ascribed  their  victory  to 
a  direct  interposition  of  Providence  on  their  behalf. 

The  British  visitor,  to  whom  this  explanation  does  not 
commend  itself,  is  stupefied  when  he  sees  the  spot  and 
hears  the  tale.  Military  authorities,  however,  declare 
that  it  is  an  error  to  suppose  that  the  occupants  of  a 
height  have,  under  circumstances  like  those  of  this  fight, 
the  advantage  which  a  height  naturally  seems  to  give 
them.  It  is,  they  say,  much  easier  for  skirmishers  to  shoot 
from  below  at  enemies  above,  than  for  those  above  to 
pick  off  skirmishers  below;  and  this  fact  of  course  makes 
still  more  difference  when  the  attacking  force  are  accus- 
tomed to  hill-shooting  and  the  defenders  above  are  not. 
But  allowing  for  both  these  causes,  the  attack  could  not 
have  succeeded  had  Laing's  Nek  been  assailed  from  the 
front  by  the  forces  at  Prospect  Camp,  and  probably  would 
never  have  been  made  had  the  British  on  the  hill  taken 
the  offensive  early  in  the  day. 

We  reached  the  top  of  the  mountain  in  a  dense  cloud, 
which  presently  broke  in  a  furious  thunderstorm,  the  flash 

20 


306 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


and  the  crasli  coining  together  at  the  same  moment,  while 
the  rain  quickly  turned  the  bottom  of  the  saucer-like  hol- 
low almost  into  a  lake.  When  the  storm  cleared  away 
what  a  melancholy  sight  was  this  little  grassy  basin 
strewn  with  loose  stones,  and  bearing  in  its  midst  the 
graves  of  the  British  dead  inclosed  within  a  low  wall! 
A  remote  and  silent  place,  raised  high  in  air  above  the 
vast,  bare,  brown  country  which  stretched  away  east, 
south,  and  west  without  a  trace  of  human  habitation.  A 
spot  less  likely  to  have  become  the  scene  of  human  pas- 
sion, terror,  and  despair  could  hardly  be  imagined.  Yet 
it  has  taken  its  place  among  the  most  remarkable  battle- 
fields in  recent  history,  and  its  name  has  lived,  and  lives 
to-day,  in  men's  minds  as  a  force  of  tremendous  potency. 

Crossing  Laing's  Nek, —  the  top  of  which  few  future 
travelers  wiU  tread,  because  the  railway  passes  in  a 
tunnel  beneath  it, —  one  crosses  the  main  watershed  of 
South  Africa,  and  comes  out  on  the  north  upon  the  great 
roUing  plateau  which  stretches  to  the  Zambesi  in  one  di- 
rection and  to  the  Atlantic  in  another.  Four  or  five  mUes 
further,  a  little  beyond  the  village  of  Charleston,  one 
leaves  Natal  and  enters  the  South  African  Republic.  The 
railway  had  just  been  completed  at  the  time  of  our  visit, 
and  though  it  was  not  opened  for  traffic  till  some  weeks 
later,  we  were  allowed  to  run  over  it  to  the  point  where 
it  joins  the  great  line  from  Cape  Town  to  Pretoria.  The 
journey  was  attended  with  some  risk,  for  in  several 
places  the  permanent  way  had  sunk,  and  in  others  it  had 
been  so  insecurely  laid  that  our  locomotive  and  car  had 
to  pass  very  slowly  and  cautiously.  The  country  is  so 
sparsely  peopled  that  if  one  did  not  know  it  was  all  taken 
up  in.  large  grazing-farms  one  might  suppose  it  stiU  a 


THEOUGH  NATAL  TO  THE  TRANSVAAL  307 

wilderness.  Here  and  there  a  few  houses  are  seen,  and 
one  place,  Heidelberg,  rises  to  the  dignity  of  a  smaU 
town,  being  built  at  the  extreme  southeastern  end  of  the 
great  Witwatersrand  gold-basin,  where  a  piece  of  good 
reef  is  worked,  and  a  mining  population  has  begun  to 
gather.  The  country  is  all  high,  averaging  5000  feet 
above  sea-level,  and  is  traversed  by  ridges  which  rise 
some  500  to  1000  feet  more.  It  is  also  perfectly  bare, 
except  for  thorny  mimosas  scattered  here  and  there,  with 
willows  fringing  the  banks  of  the  few  streams. 

Great  is  the  contrast  when  on  reaching  Elandsfontein, 
on  the  main  line  of  railway,  one  finds  one's  self  suddenly 
in  the  midst  of  the  stir  and  bustle  of  industrial  life. 
Here  are  the  tall  chimneys  of  engine-houses;  here  huge 
heaps  of  refuse  at  the  shafts  of  the  mines  mark  the  di- 
rection across  the  country  of  the  great  gold-reef.  Here 
for  the  first  time  since  he  quitted  the  suburbs  of  Cape 
Town,  the  traveler  finds  himself  again  surrounded  by  a 
dense  population,  filled  with  the  eagerness,  and  feeling 
the  strain  and  stress,  of  an  industrial  life  like  that  of  the 
manufacturing  communities  of  Europe  or  of  North 
America.  Fifteen  years  ago  there  was  hardly  a  sign  of 
human  occupation.  The  Boer  ranchman  sent  out  his 
native  boys  to  follow  the  cattle  as  they  wandered  hither 
and  thither,  seeking  scanty  pasturage  among  the  stones, 
and  would  have  been  glad  to  sell  for  a  hundred  pounds 
the  land  on  which  Johannesburg  now  stands,  and  beneath 
which  some  of  the  richest  mines  are  worked. 

The  "Witwatersrand  ( Whitewatersridge)  is  a  rocky  ridge 
rising  from  one  to  two  or  three  himdred  feet  above 
the  level  of  the  adjoining  country  and  running  nearly 
east  and  west  about  thirty  miles.  Along  its  southern 
slope  the  richest  reefs  or  beds  containing  gold  (except 


308  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


that  near  the  villasre  of  Heidelberg)  have  been  found; 
but  the  whole  gold-basin,  in  various  parts  of  which 
payable  reefs  have  been  proved  to  exist  and  are  being 
worked,  is  nearly  one  hundi-ed  and  thirty  miles  long  by 
thirty  miles  wide.  It  is  called  a  basin  because  the  various 
outcropping  reefs  represent  approximately  the  rim  of  a 
basin,  and  dip  to  a  common  center.  But  there  are  many 
faults  which  have  so  changed  the  positions  of  the  reefs 
iu  different  places  as  largely  to  obliterate  the  resemblance 
indicated  by  the  term.  It  would  be  impossible  to  give 
either  a  geological  account  of  the  district  or  a  practical 
description  of  the  methods  of  working  without  maps  and 
plans  and  a  number  of  details  unsuitable  to  this  book; 
so  I  wiU  mention  merely  a  few  salient  facts,  referring 
the  cui'ious  reader  to  the  elaborate  treatise  of  Messrs. 
Hatch  and  Chalmers  published  in  1895. 

The  Kand  gold-mining  district  at  present  consists  of 
a  line  of  mines  both  east  and  west  of  Johannesburg, 
along  the  outcrop  of  the  principal  reefs.  It  is  about 
forty-six  miles  long,  but  "  gold  does  not  occur  continu- 
ously in  payable  quantities  over  that  extent,  the  'pay-ore' 
being  found  in  irregular  patches,  and  (less  frequently) 
in  well-defined  'pay-shoots'  similar  to  those  which  char- 
acterize quartz  veins."  ^  There  are  also  a  few  scattered 
mines  in  other  parts  of  the  basin.  On  this  line  there 
are  two  principal  reefs — the  Main  Reef,  with  its  so-called 
"leader,"  a  thin  bed  just  outside  and  parallel  to  it,  and 
the  South  Reef,  with  several  others  which  are  at  present 
of  much  less  importance.  The  term  "  reef  "  means  a  bed 
or  stratum  of  rock,  and  these  Rand  reefs  are  beds  of  a 
sort  of  conglomerate,  consisting  of  sandy  and  clayey  mat- 

1  Mr.  J.  Hays  Hammond  in  ''North  American  Review"  for  Febru- 
ary, 1897. 


THROUGH  NATAL  TO  THE  TRANSVAAL  309 


ter  containing  quartz  pebbles.  The  pebbles  are  mostly 
small,  from  the  size  of  a  thrnsli's  egg  up  to  that  of  a 
goose's  egg,  and  contain  no  gold.  The  arenaceous  or  ar- 
gillaceous stuff  in  which  they  lie  imbedded  is  extremely 
hard,  and  strongly  impregnated  with  iron,  mostly  in  the 
form  of  iron  pyrites,  which  binds  it  together.  It  is  in 
this  stuff,  or  sandy  and  ferreous  cement,  that  the  gold  oc- 
curs. The  Boers  call  the  conglomerate  banket"  (ac- 
cented on  the  last  syllable),  which  is  their  name  for  a 
kind  of  sweetmeat,  because  the  pebbles  lying  in  the  ce- 
ment are  like  almonds  in  the  sugary  substance  of  the 
sweetmeat.  The  gold  is  pretty  equably  diffused  in  the 
form  of  crystals  or  (less  often)  of  flakes  —  crystals  of  such 
extremely  small  size  as  to  be  very  rarely  visible  to  the 
naked  eye.  Here  and  there,  however,  the  banket  is 
traversed  by  thin  veins  of  quartz  rock,  and  nuggets, 
mostly  quite  small,  are  occasionally  found  in  this  quartz. 

The  "Main  Reef  series"  consists  of  several  parallel  beds 
of  varying  size  and  thickness,  which  have  not  been  cor- 
related throughout  their  entire  length ;  at  some  points 
two  may  be  workable,  at  others  three.  The  Main  Reef 
bed  varies  from  one  to  twenty  feet  in  thickness;  its 
"  leader,"  which  is  richer  in  gold,  from  three  inches  to 
three  feet;  and  the  South  Reef,  also  generally  rich,  from 
three  inches  to  six  feet.  The  Main  Reef  proper,  how- 
ever, is  of  too  low  an  ore  grade  to  be  profitably  worked 
under  present  economic  conditions,  though  at  two  or  three 
mines  a  percentage  of  it  is  milled  in  conjunction  with  the 
richer  ore  from  the  other  beds. 

Where  these  beds  come  to  the  surface,  they  are  inclined, 
or  "  dip,"  as  geologists  say,  at  an  angle  of  from  60°  to 
30°,  and  the  shafts  are  now  usually  sunk,  to  follow  the 
line  of  dip.    But  as  they  are  followed  down  into  the 

20* 


310 


niPEESSIOXS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


earth,  the  angle  diminishes  to  30°  or  25°,  and  it  appears 
certain  that  at  a  still  greater  depth  they  will  be  found  to 
lie  nearly  horizontal.  This  fact  is  extremely  important, 
because  it  promises  to  make  a  much  larger  part  of  the  beds 
available  than  would  be  the  case  if  they  continued  to 
plunge  downward  at  a  high  angle,  since  in  that  case  they 
would  sooner  attain  a  depth  at  which  mining  would  be 
impossible,  because  the  heat  would  be  too  gi'eat,  and  prob- 
ably unprofitable  also,  because  the  cost  of  raising  the  ore 
would  be  extremely  heavy.  At  present  the  greatest  depth 
to  which  workings  have  been  cai'ried  is  about  2400  feet, 
but  skilled  engineers  think  it  possible  to  work  as  deep  as 
5000  feet,  though  labor  becomes  more  difficult  above  the 
temperature  of  100°  Fahrenheit,  which  is  reached  at  3000 
feet  beneath  the  surface.  No  difficulty  from  tempera- 
ture has  been  felt  at  2400  feet,  and  the  water  is  found  to 
give  little  trouble;  indeed,  a  veiy  experienced  engineer 
(to  whose  courtesy  I  am  indebted  for  these  facts)  teUs 
me  that  he  thinks  most  of  the  water  comes  from  the  sur- 
face and  can  be  taken  up  in  the  upper  levels  of  the  mine 
which  is  being  worked  at  the  depth  mentioned.  I  have 
given  these  details  in  order  to  show  how  enormous  a 
mass  of  ore  remains  to  be  extracted  when  the  deep  work- 
ings, which  are  still  in  their  infancy,  have  been  fairly  en- 
tered upon.  But  a  stiU  more  remarkable  fact  is  that  the 
auriferous  banket  beds  appear,  so  far  as  they  have  been 
followed  by  deep  borings,  to  retain,  as  they  descend  into 
the  earth,  not  only  their  average  thickness,  but  also  their 
average  mineral  quality.  Here  is  the  striking  featui'e  of 
the  Rand  gold-beds,  which  makes  them,  so  far  as  we  know, 
unique  in  the  world. 

Everywhere  else  gold-mining  is  a  comparatively  haz- 
ardous and  uncertain  enterprise.   Where  the  metal  is 


THEOUGH  NATAL  TO  THE  TRANSVAAL  311 


found  in  alluvial  deposits,  the  deposits  usually  vary  much 
in  the  percentage  of  gold  to  the  ton  of  soil  which  they 
yield,  and  they  are  usually  exhausted  in  a  few  years. 
Where  it  occurs  in  veins  of  quartz-rock  (the  usual  ma- 
trix), these  veins  are  generally  irregular  in  their  thick- 
ness, often  coming  abruptly  to  an  end  as  one  follows 
them  downward,  and  still  more  irregular  and  uncertain 
in  the  percentage  of  gold  to  rock.  For  a  few  yards  your 
quartz-reef  may  be  extremely  rich,  and  thereafter  the  so- 
called  "  shoot "  may  stop,  and  the  vein  contain  so  little 
gold  as  not  to  pay  the  cost  of  working.  But  in  the  Wit- 
watersrand  basin  the  precious  metal  is  so  uniformly  and 
equally  distributed  through  the  auriferous  beds  that 
when  you  have  found  a  payable  bed  you  may  calculate 
with  more  confidence  than  you  can  anywhere  else  that 
the  high  proportion  of  gold  to  rock  will  be  maintained 
throughout  the  bed,  not  only  in  its  lateral  extension, 
which  can  be  easily  verified,  but  also  as  it  dips  downward 
into  the  bowels  of  the  earth.  It  is,  therefore,  not  so  much 
the  richness  of  this  gold-field  —  for  the  percentage  of 
metal  to  rock  is  seldom  very  high,  and  the  cost  of  work- 
ing the  hard  rock  and  disengaging  the  metal  from  the 
minerals  with  which  it  is  associated  are  heavy  items  —  as 
it  is  the  comparative  certainty  of  return,  and  the  vast 
quantity  of  ore  from  which  that  return  may  be  expected, 
that  have  made  the  Rand  famous,  have  drawn  to  it  a 
great  mass  of  European  capital  and  a  large  population, 
and  have  made  the  district  the  object  of  political  desires, 
ambition,  and  contests  which  transcend  South  Africa  and 
threaten  to  become  a  part  of  the  game  which  the  great 
powers  of  Europe  are  playing  on  the  chessboard  of  the 
world. 

A  high  mining  authority  tells  me  that  the  banket 


312  IMPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


or  conglomerate  beds  are  probably  of  marine  origin,  but 
that  the  skilled  opinion  now  conceives  that  the  gold  was 
not  deposited  pari  passu  with  the  deposition  of  the  beds, 
but  was  carried  into  the  conglomerate  seams  subse- 
quently to  their  deposit.  In  this  respect  they  resemble 
auriferous  veins  of  quartz,  though  in  these  banket  reefs 
the  gold-bearing  solutions  would  seem  to  have  come  up 
through  the  interstitial  spaces  of  the  conglomerate  in- 
stead of  in  the  more  or  less  open  fissures  of  the  gold- 
bearing  quartz-veins.  The  chemical  conditions  under 
which  gold  is  thus  deposited  are  still  conjectural.  Gold 
has  long  been  known  to  exist  in  sea-water,  in  the  form 
of  an  iodide  or  a  chloride ;  and  one  skilful  metallurgist 
at  Johannesburg  told  me  that  he  believed  there  was  as 
much  gold  in  a  cubic  mile  of  sea-water  as  the  whole  an- 
nual output  of  the  Rand  —  that  is  to  say,  nearly  £8,000,- 
000  ($40,000,000). 

Had  these  deposits  been  discovered  a  century  ago,  few, 
if  any  of  them,  would  have  been  worth  working,  because 
miners  did  not  then  possess  the  necessary  means  for 
extracting  the  gold  from  its  intractable  matrix.  It  is 
the  progress  of  chemical  science  which,  by  inventing  new 
processes,  such  as  the  roasting  with  chlorin,  the  treat- 
ment in  vats  with  cyanide,  and  the  application  of  electri- 
cal currents,  has  made  the  working  profitable.  Further 
improvements  in  the  processes  of  reduction  will  doubtless 
increase  the  mining  area,  by  making  it  worth  while  to 
develop  mines  where  the  percentage  of  metal  to  rock  is 
now  too  small  to  j-ield  a  dividend.  Improvements,  more- 
over, tend  to  accelerate  the  rate  of  production,  and  there- 
by to  shorten  the  life  of  the  mines ;  for  the  more  profit- 
able working  becomes,  the  greater  is  the  temptation  to 
woi'k  as  fast  as  possible  and  get  out  the  maximum  of  ore. 


THROUGH  NATAL  TO  THE  TRANSVAAL  313 


The  duration  of  the  mines,  as  a  whole,  is  therefore  a 
difficult  problem,  for  it  involves  the  question  whether 
many  pieces  of  reef,  which  are  now  little  worked  or  not 
worked  at  aU,  will  in  future  be  found  worth  working, 
owing  to  cheapened  appliances  and  to  a  larger  yield  of 
gold  per  ton  of  rock,  in  which  case  the  number  of  mines 
may  be  largely  increased,  and  reefs  now  neglected  be 
opened  up  when  the  present  ones  have  been  exhausted. 
The  view  of  the  most  competent  specialists  seems  to  be 
that,  though  many  of  what  are  now  the  best  properties 
will  probably  be  worked  out  in  twenty  or  thirty  years, 
the  district,  as  a  whole,  will  not  be  exhausted  for  at  least 
fifty,  and  possibly  even  for  seventy  or  eighty  years  to 
come.  And  the  value  of  the  gold  to  be  extracted  within 
those  fifty  years  has  been  roughly  estimated  at  not  less 
than  £700,000,000  (over  $3,500,000,000),  of  which  £200,- 
000,000  will  be  clear  profit,  the  balance  going  to  pay 
the  cost  of  extraction.  In  1896  the  value  of  the  Wit. 
watersrand  gold  output  was  £7,400,000  ($37,000,000).i 
Assuming  a  production  of  nearly  twice  that  amount,  viz., 
£14,000,000  ($70,000,000)  a  year,  this  would  exhaust  the 
field  in  fifty  years  ;  but  it  is,  of  course,  quite  impossible  to 
predict  what  the  future  rate  of  production  will  be,  for  that 
must  depend  not  only  on  the  progress  of  mechanical  and 
chemical  science,  but  (as  we  shall  presently  see)  j^to  some 
extent  also  upon  administrative  and  even  political  condi- 
tions. In  the  five  years  preceding  1896  the  production 
had  increased  so  fast  (at  the  rate  of  about  a  million  ster- 
ling per  annum)  that,  even  under  the  conditions  which 
existed  in  1895,  every  one  expected  a  further  increase, 
and  the  product  of  1897  will  probably  be  not  far  short  of 

1  The  total  output  of  the  California  gold  deposits  up  to  the  end  of 
1896  was  $1,282,000,000  (£256,000,000). 


314  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


£10,000,000.  Witli  more  favorable  economic  and  admin- 
istrative conditions  it  might  within  four  years  reach 
£14,000,000 ;  and  the  South  African  Republic  would  then 
stand  first  among  the  gold-producing  countries.  She  is 
now  second  to  the  United  States  only.  The  total  annual 
output  of  gold  for  the  whole  world  was  in  1896  about 
£43,600,000  ($218,000,000). 

Among  the  economic  conditions  I  have  referred  to, 
none  is  more  important  than  the  supply  and  the  wages 
of  labor.  On  the  Rand,  as  in  all  South  African  mines 
of  every  kind,  unskilled  manual  labor  is  performed  by 
Kafirs,  whites  —  together  with  a  few  half-breeds  and  In- 
dian coolies  —  being  employed  for  all  operations,  whether 
within  the  mine  or  above  the  ground,  which  require  in- 
telligence and  special  knowledge. 

The  total  number  of  natives  employed  in  1896  has  been 
given  at  about  58,000,  and  of  whites  about  6000.  Mr. 
Hammond  ("  North  American  Review "  for  February,  1897) 
puts  the  Kafirs  at  70,000,  receiving  nearly  $12,500,000  in 
annual  wages,  and  the  whites  at  9000,  receiving  over 
$9,000,000.  Whites  would  be  still  more  largely  employed 
if  they  would  work  harder,  but  they  disdain  the  more 
severe  kinds  of  labor,  thinking  those  fit  onh'  for  Kafirs. 
The  native  workmen  are  of  various  tribes,  Basutos,  Zulus, 
Shanganis,  and  Zambesi  boys  being  reckoned  the  best. 
Most  of  them  come  from  a  distance,  some  from  great  dis- 
tances, and  return  home  when  they  have  saved  the  sum 
they  need  to  establish  themselves  in  life.  "Wages  are 
high,  rising  for  Kafirs  to  £3  ($15)  for  a  lunar  month, 
while  white  men  of  course  receive  much  more.  The 
dream  of  the  mine  manager  is  to  cut  down  the  cost  of 
native  labor  by  getting  a  larger  and  more  regular  sup- 
ply, as  well  as  by  obtaining  cheaper  maize  to  feed  the 


THROUGH  NATAL  TO  THE  TRANSVAAL  315 


■workmen,  for  at  present,  owing  to  the  customs  duties  on 
food-stuffs,  the  cost  of  maize  —  nearly  all  of  which  is  im- 
ported—  is  mvich  higher  than  it  need  be.  So  white 
labor  might  be  much  cheapened,  while  still  remain- 
ing far  better  paid  than  in  Europe,  by  a  reduction  of 
the  customs  tariff,  which  now  makes  living  inordinately 
dear.  Heavy  duties  are  levied  on  machinery  and  chemi- 
cals ;  and  dynamite  is  costly,  the  manufacture  of  it  hav- 
ing been  constituted  a  monopoly  granted  to  a  single 
person.  Of  all  these  things,  loud  complaints  are  heard, 
but  perhaps  the  loudest  are  directed  against  the  rates  of 
freight  levied  by  the  railways,  and  especially  by  the 
Netherlands  Company,  which  owns  the  railways  inside 
the  Transvaal  State  itself. 

Even  apart  from  the  question  of  railway  freights, 
Johannesburg  believed  in  1895  that  better  legislation  and 
administration  might  reduce  the  cost  of  production  by 
twenty  or  thirty  per  cent.,  a  difference  which  would  of 
course  be  rapidly  felt  in  the  dividends  of  the  mines  that 
now  pay,  and  which  would  enable  many  now  unprofitable 
mines  to  yield  a  dividend  and  many  mines  to  be  worked 
which  are  now  not  worth  working.  ^ 

There  is  nothing  in  the  natural  aspect  of  the  mining  belt 
to  distinguish  it  from  the  rest  of  the  Transvaal  plateau. 
It  is  a  high,  dry,  bare,  scorched,  and  windy  country,  and 
Johannesburg,  its  center,  stands  in  one  of  the  highest, 
driest,  and  windiest  spots,  on  the  south  slope  of  the  Wit- 

1  The  cost  of  getting  the  ore  has  been  found  in  the  case  of  twenty- 
two  upper  level  companies  in  the  best  part  of  the  Rand  to  average 
twenty-nine  shillings  and  sixpence  per  ton.  A  little  French  book 
("L'Industrie  Mini^re  au  Transvaal,"  published  in  1897),  which  pre- 
sents a  careful  examination  of  these  questions,  calculates  at  about 
thirty  per  cent,  of  the  expenditure  the  savings  in  production  which 
better  legislation  and  administration  might  render  possible. 


316 


IMPRESSIONS  OP  SOUTH  AFRICA 


watersrand  ridge,  whose  top  rises  some  one  hundred  and 
fifty  feet  above  the  business  quarters.  Founded  in  1886, 
the  town  has  now  a  population  exceeding  100,000,  more 
than  half  of  them  whites.  In  1896  the  census  (probably 
imperfect)  showed  within  a  radius  of  three  miles  50,000 
whites,  42,000  Kafirs,  and  6000  Asiatics.  Though  it  is 
rapidly  passing  from  the  stage  of  shanties  and  corrugated 
iron  into  that  of  handsome  streets  lined  with  taU  brick 
houses,  it  is  still  rough  and  irregular,  ill  paved,  ill  lighted, 
with  unbuilt  spaces  scattered  about  and  good  houses  set 
down  among  hovels. 

Another  element  of  unlovehness  is  supplied  by  the 
mines  themselves,  for  the  chief  reefs  run  quite  close  to 
the  southern  part  of  the  town,  and  the  huge  heaps  of 
"  waste  rock  "  or  refuse  and  so-called  "  tailings,"  the  ma- 
chinery which  raises,  crushes,  and  treats  the  ore,  and  the 
tall  chimneys  of  the  engine-houses,  are  prominent  objects 
in  the  suburbs.  There  is  not  much  smoke;  but  to  set 
against  this  there  is  a  vast  deal  of  dust,  plenty  from  the 
streets,  and  stm  more  from  the  tailings  and  other  heaps 
of  highly  comminuted  ore-refuse.  The  streets  and  roads 
alternate  between  mud  for  the  two  wet  months,  and  dust 
in  the  rest  of  the  year ;  and  in  the  dry  months  not  only 
the  streets  but  the  air  is  full  of  dust,  for  there  is  usually 
a  wind  blowing.  But  for  this  dust,  and  for  the  want  of 
proper  drainage  and  a  proper  water-supply,  the  place 
would  be  healthy,  for  the  air  is  dry  and  bracing.  But 
there  had  been  up  to  the  end  of  1895  a  good  deal  of 
typhoid  fever,  and  a  great  deal  of  pneumonia,  often  rap- 
idly fatal.  In  the  latter  part  of  1896  the  mortality  was  as 
high  as  58  per  thousand. 

It  is  a  striking  contrast  to  pass  from  the  business  part 
of  the  town  to  the  pretty  suburb  which  lies  to  the  north- 


,   THROUGH  NATAL  TO  THE  TRANSVAAL  317 

east  under  tlie  steep  ridge  of  the  Witwatersrand,  where 
the  wealthier  residents  have  erected  charming  villas  and 
surrounded  them  with  groves  and  gardens.  Less  pretty, 
but  far  more  striking,  is  the  situation  of  a  few  of  the 
outlying  country  houses  which  have  been  built  to  the 
north,  on  the  rocky  top  or  along  the  northern  slope  of 
the  same  ridge.  These  have  a  noble  prospect  over  thirty 
or  forty  miles  of  rolling  countr)^  to  the  distant  Magalies- 
berg.  East  and  west  the  horizon  is  closed  by  long 
ranges  of  blue  hills,  while,  beneath,  some  large  plantations 
of  trees,  and  fields  cultivated  by  irrigation,  give  to  the 
landscape  a  greenness  rare  in  this  arid  land.  Standing 
on  this  lonely  height  and  looking  far  away  toward  the 
Limpopo  and  Bechuanaland,  it  is  hard  to  believe  that 
such  a  center  of  restless  and  strenuous  life  as  Johannes- 
burg is  so  near  at  hand.  The  prospect  is  one  of  the 
finest  in  this  part  of  Africa ;  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  a 
tract  on  these  breezy  heights  will,  before  building  has 
spread  further,  be  acquired  by  the  town  as  a  public  park. 

Though  in  its  general  aspect  Johannesburg  comes 
nearer  to  one  of  the  new  mining  cities  of  western 
America  than  to  any  place  in  Europe,  yet  in  many  points 
it  is  more  English  than  American,  as  it  is  far  more 
English  than  Dutch.  Indeed,  there  is  nothing  to  remind 
the  traveler  that  he  is  in  a  Dutch  country  except  the 
Dutch  names  of  the  streets  on  some  of  the  street  corners. 
The  population  —  very  mixed,  for  there  are  Germans, 
Italians,  and  French,  as  well  as  some  natives  of  India — 
is  practically  English-speaking,  for  next  in  number  to  the 
colonial  English  and  the  recent  immigrants  from  Great 
Britain  come  the  Australians  and  the  Americans,  who  are 
for  all  social  purposes  practically  English.  It  is  a  busy, 
eager,  restless,  pleasure-loving  town,  making  money  fast 


318  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


and  spending  it  lavishly,  and  fiUed  from  end  to  end  witli 
the  fever  of  mining  speculation.  This  pursuit  concen- 
trates itself  in  one  spot  where  two  of  the  principal  streets 
meet,  and  where  a  part  of  one  of  them  is  inclosed  within 
low  chains,  so  as  to  make  a  sort  of  inclosure,  in  which 
those  who  traffic  in  gold  shares  meet  to  buy  and  sell. 
"  Between  the  chains  "  is  the  local  expression  for  the  min- 
ing exchange,  or  share-market,  and  a  sensitive  and  un- 
stable market  it  is.  It  had  been  booming  for  most  of  the 
year,  and  many  stocks  stood  far  too  high.  But  while  we 
were  there  what  is  called  a  "  slump  "  occurred,  and  it  was 
pretty  to  study  the  phenomenon  on  the  countenances  be- 
tween the  chains. 

The  passion  of  the  people  for  sport,  and  especially  for 
racing,  is  characteristically  English,  as  is  also  the  interest 
in  theaters  and  other  kinds  of  public  amusement.  The 
gambling-saloon  is  less  conspicuous  than  in  Transatlantic 
mining-camps,  and  there  are  far  fewer  breaches  of  p^^blic 
order.  Decorum  is  not  always  maintained.  When  I  was 
there,  a  bout  of  fisticuffs  occurred  between  the  ex-head 
of  the  town  police  and  his  recently  appointed  successor, 
and  the  prowess  of  the  former  delighted  a  large  ring  of 
English  spectators  who  gathered  round  the  combatants. 
But  one  hears  of  no  shootings  or  lynchings;  and  con- 
sidering the  large  number  of  bad  characters  who  natu- 
rally congregate  at  places  of  this  kind,  it  was  surprising 
that  the  excess  of  crime  over  other  South  African  towns 
(in  which  there  is  very  Httle  crime  among  the  whites) 
should  not  have  been  larger.  Partly,  perhaps,  because  the 
country  is  far  from  Europe,  the  element  of  mere  roughs 
and  rowdies,  of  scalawags,  hoodlums,  and  larrikins,  is 
comparatively  smaU,  and  the  proportion  of  educated  men 
unusually  large.  The  best  society  of  the  place  —  of  course 


THROUGH  NATAL  TO  THE  TRANSVAAL  319 

not  very  numerous  —  is  cultivated  and  agreeable.  It  con- 
sists of  men  of  English  or  Anglo-Jewish  race — including 
Cape  Colonists  and  Americans,  vnth  a  few  Germans, 
mostly  of  Jewish  origin.  I  should  conjecture  the  Eng- 
lish and  colonial  element  to  compose  seven  tenths  of  the 
white  population,  the  American  and  German  about  one 
tenth  each,  while  Frenchmen  and  other  European  nations 
make  up  the  residue.  There  are  hardly  any  Boers  or 
Hollanders,  except  government  officials ;  and  one  feels 
one's  self  all  the  time  in  an  English,  that  is  to  say,  an 
Anglo-Semitic  town.  Though  there  are  45,000  Kafirs, 
not  many  are  to  be  seen  about  the  streets.  The  Boer 
farmers  of  the  neighborhood  drive  their  wagons  in  every 
morning,  laden  with  vegetables.  But  there  are  so  few  of 
the  native  citizens  of  the  South  African  RepubKc  resident 
in  this  its  largest  town  that  the  traveler  cannot  help  fan- 
cying himself  in  the  Colony ;  and  it  was  only  natural  that 
the  English-speaking  people,  although  newcomers,  should 
feel  the  place  to  be  virtually  theirs. 

Great  is  the  change  when  one  passes  from  the  busy 
Johannesburg  to  the  sleepy  Pretoria,  the  political  capital 
of  the  country,  laid  out  forty-three  years  ago,  and  made 
the  seat  of  government  in  1863.  The  little  town  —  it  has 
about  12,000  inhabitants,  two  thirds  of  whom  are  whites 
—  lies  in  a  warm  and  well-watered  valley  about  thirty 
miles  north-northeast  of  Johannesburg.  The  gum-trees 
and  willows  that  have  grown  up  swiftly  in  the  gardens 
and  along  the  avenues  embower  it:  and  the  views  over 
the  valley  from  the  low  hills  —  most  of  them  now  (since 
the  middle  of  1896)  crowned  by  batteries  of  cannon  —  that 
rise  above  the  suburbs  are  pleasing.  But  it  has  neither 
the  superb  panoramic  views  nor  the  sense  of  abounding 
wealth  and  strenuous  Hfe  that  make  Johannesburg  strik- 


320 


BIPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFEICA 


ing.  The  streets  are  wide,  and  after  rain  so  muddy  as 
to  be  almost  impassable ;  the  houses  iiTegular,  yet  seldom 
picturesque.  Nothing  could  be  less  beautiful  than  the 
big  Dutch  church,  which  occupies  the  best  situation,  in 
the  middle  of  the  market  square.  There  is,  however,  one 
stately  and  even  sumptuous  building,  that  which  contains 
the  Government  Offices  and  chambers  of  the  legislature. 
It  is  said  to  have  cost  £200,000  ($1,000,000).  The  room 
in  which:  the  Volksraad  (i.  e,,  the  First  or  chief  Volksraad) 
meets  is  spacious  and  handsome.  It  interests  the  visitor 
to  note  that  on  the  right  hand  of  the  chair  of  the  presid- 
ing officer  there  is  another  cliaii-,  on  the  same  level,  for 
the  president  of  the  Republic,  while  to  the  right  there 
are  seats  for  the  five  members  of  the  Executive  Council, 
and  to  the  left  five  others  for  the  heads  of  the  adminis- 
trative departments,  though  none  of  these  eleven  is  a 
member  of  the  Raad. 

We  had  expected  to  find  Pretoria  as  Dutch  as  Johannes- 
burg is  English.  But  although  there  is  a  considerable  Boer 
and  Hollander  population,  and  one  hears  Dutch  largely 
spoken,  the  general  aspect  of  the  town  is  British-colonial ; 
and  the  British-colonial  element  is  conspicuous  and  influen- 
tial, Ha\-ing  little  trade  and  no  industry,  Pretoria  exists 
chiefly  as  the  seat  of  the  administration  and  of  the  coiu'ts 
of  law.  Now  the  majority  of  the  bar  are  British-colonials 
from  the  Cape  Colony  or  England.  The  lai'ge  interests 
involved  in  the  gold-fields,  and  the  questions  that  arise 
between  the  companies  formed  to  work  them,  give  abun- 
dant scope  for  litigation,  and  one  whole  street,  commonly 
known  as  the  Aasvogelsnest  (Vulture's  Nest),  is  filled  with 
their  offices.  They  and  the  judges,  the  most  distin- 
guished of  whom  are  also  either  colonial  Dutchmen  or 
of  British  origin,  are  the  most  cultivated  and  (except  as 


THROUGH  NATAL  TO  THE  TRANSVAAL  321 


regards  political  power)  the  leading  section  of  society. 
It  is  a  real  pleasure  to  the  European  traveler  to  meet 
so  many  able  and  well-read  men  as  the  bench  and  bar 
of  Pretoria  contain ;  and  he  finds  it  odd  that  many  of 
them  should  be  excluded  from  the  franchise  and  most 
of  them  regarded  with  suspicion  by  the  ruling  powers. 
Johannesburg  (with  its  mining  environs)  has  nearly  all 
the  industry  and  wealth,  and  half  the  whole  white  popu- 
lation of  the  Transvaal  —  a  country,  be  it  remembered, 
as  large  as  Great  Britain.  Pretoria  and  the  lonely  coun- 
try to  the  north,  east,  and  west  ^  have  the  rest  of  the 
population  and  all  the  power.  It  is  true  that  Pretoria 
has  also  a  good  deal  of  the  intelligence.  But  this  intelli- 
gence is  frequently  dissociated  from  political  rights. 

President  Kruger  lives  in  a  house  which  the  Republic 
has  presented  to  him,  five  minutes'  walk  from  the  public 
offices.  It  is  a  long,  low  cottage,  like  an  Indian  bunga- 
low, with  nothing  to  distinguish  it  from  other  dwellings, 
though  the  president  has  a  salary  of  seven  thousand 
pounds  sterling  ($35,000)  a  year,  besides  an  allowance, 
commonly  caUed  "  coffee  money,"  to  enable  him  to  defray 
the  expenses  of  hospitality.  Just  opposite  stands  the 
little  chapel  of  the  so-called  Dopper  sect  in  which  he 
occasionally  preaches.  Like  the  Scotch  of  former  days 
(for  Scotland  has  greatly  changed  within  the  last  thirty 
years),  the  Boers  have  generally  taken  more  interest  in 
ecclesiastical  than  in  secular  politics.  A  sharp  contest 
has  raged  among  them  between  the  party  which  desires 
to  be  in  full  communion  with  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church 
of  Cape  Colony  and  the  party  which  prefers  isolation,  dis- 

1  There  are  some  mines  of  gold  and  coal  in  other  parts,  mostly 
on  the  east  side  of  the  country,  with  a  small  industrial  population 
consisting  chiefly  of  recent  immigrants. 

21 


322  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


trusting  (it  would  seem  unjustly)  the  strict  orthodoxy  of 
that  church.  The  Doppers  are  still  more  stringent  in 
their  adherence  to  ancient  ways.  When  I  asked  for  an  ac- 
count of  their  tenets  I  was  told  that  they  wore  long  waist- 
coats and  refused  to  sing  hymns.  They  are  in  fact  old- 
fashioned  Puritans  in  dogmatic  beliefs  and  social  usages, 
and,  as  in  the  case  of  the  more  extreme  Puritans  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  their  theological  stringency  is  ac- 
companied by  a  firmness  of  character  which  has  given 
them  a  power  disproportionate  to  their  numbers. 

Quiet  as  Pretoria  is,  the  echoes  of  the  noisy  Rand  are 
heard  in  it,  and  the  Rand  questions  occupy  men's  minds. 
But  outside  Pretoria  the  country  is  lonely  and  silent,  like 
aU  other  parts  of  the  Transvaal,  except  the  mining  dis- 
tricts. Here  and  there,  at  long  intervals,  you  come  upon 
a  cluster  of  houses  —  one  can  hardly  call  them  ^Tllages. 
If  it  were  not  for  the  mines,  there  would  not  be  one 
white  man  to  a  square  mile  over  the  whole  Republic. 


CHAPTER  XIX 
THE  ORANGE  FREE  STATE 

IN  the  last  preceding  chapter  I  have  carried  the  reader 
into  the  Transvaal  through  Natal,  because  this  is  the 
most  interesting  route.  But  most  travelers  in  fact  enter 
via  Cape  Colony  and  the  Orange  Free  State,  that  State 
lying  between  the  northeastern  frontier  of  the  Colony 
and  the  southeastern  frontier  of  the  Transvaal.  Of  the 
Free  State  there  is  not  much  to  say ;  but  that  little  needs 
to  be  said,  because  this  republic  is  a  very  important  fac- 
tor in  South  African  politics.  And  before  coming  to  its 
politics,  the  reader  ought  to  learn  something  of  its  popu- 
lation. I  have  already  (Chapter  V)  summarized  its  phys- 
ical features  and  have  referred  (Chapter  XI)  to  the  main 
incidents  in  its  history.  Physically,  there  is  little  to  dis- 
tinguish it  from  the  regions  that  bound  it  to  the  east, 
north,  and  west.  Like  them  it  is  level  or  undulating, 
dry,  and  bare — in  the  main  a  land  of  pasture.  One  con- 
siderable diamond-mine  is  worked  in  the  west,  and  along 
the  banks  of  the  Caledon  River  there  lies  one  rich  agri- 
cultural district.  But  the  land  under  cultivation  is  less 
than  one  per  cent,  of  the  whole  area.  There  are  no 
manufactures,  and  of  course  very  little  trade;  so  the 
scanty  population  increases  slowly.    It  is  a  country  of 

323 


324  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


great  grassy  plains,  brilliantly  green  and  fresh  after 
rain  has  fallen,  parched  and  dusty  at  other  times,  but 
able  to  support  great  numbers  of  cattle  and  sheep. 
Rare  farm-houses  and  stiU  rarer  \alLages  are  scattered 
over  this  wide  expanse,  which  in  the  northeast,  to- 
ward Natal,  rises  into  a  mountainous  region.  The 
natives  (most  of  them  of  Bechuana  stock)  are  nearly 
twice  as  numerous  as  the  whites.  Some  live  on  a  large 
Barolong  reservation,  where  they  tiU  the  soil  and  keep 
their  cattle  in  their  own  way.  The  rest  are  scattered 
over  the  country,  mostly  employed  as  herdsmen  to  the 
farmers.  Save  on  the  reservation  they  cannot  own  land 
or  travel  without  a  pass,  and  of  course  they  are  not  ad- 
mitted to  the  electoral  franchise.  They  seem,  however, 
to  be  fairly  well  treated,  and  are  perfectly  submissive. 
Their  wages  average  thirty  shillings  ($7.50)  a  month. 
Native  labor  has  become  so  scarce  that  no  farmer  is  now 
permitted  to  employ  more  than  twenty-five.  Of  the 
whites,  fully  two  thirds  are  of  Dutch  origin,  and  Dutch 
is  pretty  generally  spoken.  English,  however,  is  under- 
stood by  most  people,  and  is  the  language  most  com- 
monly used  in  the  larger  villages.  The  two  races  have 
lived  of  late  years  in  perfect  harmony,  for  there  has 
never  been  any  war  between  the  Free  State  and  Great 
Britain.  As  the  tendency  of  the  English  citizens  to  look 
to  Cape  Colony  has  been  checked  by  the  sentiment  of  in- 
dependence which  soon  grew  up  in  this  little  republic, 
and  by  their  attachment  to  its  institutions,  so  the  know- 
ledge of  the  Dutch  citizens  that  the  English  element 
entertains  this  sentiment  and  attachment  has  prevented 
the  growth  of  suspicion  among  the  Dutch  and  has 
knitted  the  two  races  into  a  unity  which  is  generally 
cordial.   Nevertheless,  so  much  Dutch  feeling  remains, 


THE  OEANGE  PEEE  STATE 


325 


that  at  the  recent  election  of  a  president  the  scale  was 
decisively  turned  in  favor  of  one  out  of  the  two  can- 
didates, both  excellent  men,  by  the  fact  that  the  one 
belonged  to  a  Dutch,  the  other  to  a  Scottish  family. 
It  may  be  added  that  the  proximity  of  the  Colony,  and 
the  presence  of  the  large  English  element,  have  told  favor- 
ably upon  the  Dutch  population  in  the  way  of  stimulating 
their  intelligence  and  modifying  their  conservatism,  while 
not  injuring  those  solid  qualities  which  make  them  ex- 
cellent citizens.  The  desire  for  instruction  is  far  stronger 
among  them  than  it  is  in  the  Transvaal.  Indeed,  there 
is  no  part  of  South  Africa  where  education  is  more  valued 
and  more  widely  diffused. 

The  only  place  that  can  be  called  a  town  is  Bloemfon- 
tein,  the  seat  of  government,  which  stands  on  the  great 
trunk-line  of  railway  from  Cape  Town  to  Pretoria,  seven 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  the  former  and  two  hundred 
and  ninety  from  the  latter  town.  It  is  what  the  Germans 
call  a  "freundliches  Stadtchen,"  a  bright  and  cheerful  little 
place,  with  3300  white  and  2500  black  inhabitants,  nes- 
tling under  a  rocky  kopje,  and  looking  out  over  illimit- 
able plains  to  the  east  and  south.  The  air  is  dry  and 
bracing,  and  said  to  be  especially  beneficial  to  persons 
threatened  with  pulmonary  disease.  As  it  is  one  of  the 
smallest,  so  it  is  one  of  the  neatest  and,  in  a  modest  way, 
best-appointed  capitals  in  the  world.  It  has  a  little  fort, 
originally  built  by  the  British  government,  with  two 
Maxim  guns  in  the  arsenal,  a  Protestant  Episcopal  and 
a  Roman  Catholic  cathedral  as  well  as  Dutch  Reformed 
churches,  all  kinds  of  public  institutions,  a  spacious 
market  square,  with  a  good  club  and  an  excellent  hotel, 
wide  and  well-kept  streets,  gardens  planted  with  trees 
that  are  now  so  tall  as  to  make  the  whole  place  seem  to 

21* 


326 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


swim  in  green,  a  national  museum,  and  a  very  handsome 
building  for  the  legislatui'e,  whose  principal  apartment 
is  as  tasteful,  weU  lighted,  and  well  arranged  as  any  I 
have  seen  in  any  British  colony  or  American  State.  The 
place  is  extremely  quiet,  and  people  live  very  simply, 
though  not  cheaply,  for  prices  are  high,  and  domestic 
service  so  dear  and  scarce  as  to  be  almost  unprocurable. 
Every  one  is  above  poverty,  but  stiU  further  removed 
from  wealth.  It  looks,  and  one  is  told  that  it  is,  the  most 
idyllic  community  in  Africa,  worthy  to  be  the  capital  of 
the  most  contented  and  happy  State.  No  great  indus- 
tries have  come  into  the  Free  State  to  raise  economic 
strife.  No  capitalists  tempt  the  virtue  of  legislators,  or 
are  forced  to  buy  off  the  attacks  of  blackmailers.  No 
religious  animosities  divide  Christians,  for  perfect  re- 
ligious freedom  exists.  No  prize  is  offered  to  ambition. 
No  difficulties  as  to  British  suzerainty  exist,  for  the  re- 
public is  absolutely  independent.  No  native  troubles  have 
arisen.  No  political  parties  have  sprung  up.  Taxation 
is  low,  and  there  is  no  public  debt.^  The  arms  of  the 
State  are  a  Hon  and  a  lamb  standing  on  opposite  sides 
of  an  orange-tree,  with  the  motto,  "Freedom,  Immigration, 
Patience,  Courage,"  and  though  the  lion  has,  since  1871, 
ceased  to  range  over  the  plains,  his  pacific  attitude  beside 
the  lamb  on  this  device  happily  typifies  the  harmony 
which  exists  between  the  British  and  Dutch  elements, 
and  the  spii'it  of  concord  which  the  late  excellent  Presi- 
dent Brand  so  weU  infused  into  the  public  hfe  of  his 
republic.  In  the  Orange  Free  State  I  discovered,  in  1895, 
the  kind  of  repubUc  which  the  fond  fancy  of  the  philos- 

1  I  am  informed  that  there  is  really  a  debt  of  about  twenty  thou- 
sand pounds,  which  the  State  is  paying  off  by  drawings,  and  would 
pay  off  altogether  at  once  did  not  the  market  price  stand  too  high. 


THE  ORANGE  FREE  STATE 


327 


ophers  of  last  century  painted.  It  was  an  ideal  republic, 
not  in  respect  of  any  special  excellence  in  its  institutions, 
but  because  the  economic  and  social  conditions  which 
have  made  democracy  so  far  from  being  an  unmixed 
success  in  the  American  States  and  in  the  larger  colonies 
of  Britain,  not  to  speak  of  the  peoples  of  Europe,  whether 
ancient  or  modern,  had  not  come  into  existence  here, 
while  the  external  dangers  which  for  a  time  threatened 
the  State  had  vanished  away  like  clouds  into  the  blue. 

Although,  however,  the  political  constitution  of  the 
Free  State  is  not  the  chief  cause  of  the  peace  and  order 
which  the  State  enjoys,  it  may  claim  to  be  well  suited 
to  the  community  which  lives  happily  under  it.  It  is  a 
simple  constitution,  and  embodied  in  a  very  short,  terse, 
and  straightforward  instrument  of  sixty-two  articles, 
most  of  them  only  a  few  lines  in  length. 

The  governing  authorities  are  the  President,  the  Ex- 
ecutive Council,  and  the  Volksraad  or  elective  popular 
assembly.  Citizenship  belongs  to  all  white  persons  born 
in  the  State,  or  who  have  resided  in  it  for  three  years  and 
have  made  a  written  promise  of  allegiance,  or  have  resided 
one  year  and  possess  real  property  of  the  value  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  pounds  sterling  ($750),  a  liberality 
which  is  in  marked  contrast  to  the  restrictions  imposed 
upon  newcomers  by  the  laws  of  the  Transvaal.  Thus, 
practically,  all  the  white  inhabitants  are  citizens,  with 
full  rights  of  suffrage — subject  to  some  small  property 
qualifications  for  newcomers  which  it  is  hardly  worth 
while  to  enumerate. 

The  President  is  elected  by  the  citizens  for  five  years 
and  is  reeligible.  He  can  sit  and  speak  but  cannot  vote 
in  the  Volksraad,  is  responsible  to  it,  and  has  the  general 
control  of  the  administration. 


328  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


The  Executive  Council  consists  of  five  members  —  be- 
sides tbe  President  —  viz.,  the  State  Secretary  and  the 
Magistrate  of  Bloemfontein,  both  of  whom  are  appointed 
by  the  President  and  confirmed  by  the  Volksraad,  and 
three  other  members  chosen  by  the  Volksraad.  It  is 
associated  with  the  President  for  divers  purposes,  but 
has  not  proved  to  be  an  important  or  influential  body. 

The  Volksraad  is  elected  by  all  the  citizens  for  four 
years,  half  of  the  members  retiring  every  two  years.  It 
has  only  one  chamber,  in  which  there  sit  at  present  fifty- 
eight  members.  It  is  the  supreme  legislative  authority, 
meeting  annually,  and  in  extra  sessions  when  summoned, 
and  its  consent  is  required  to  the  making  of  treaties 
and  to  a  declaration  of  war.  The  President  has  no  veto 
on  its  acts,  and  the  heads  of  the  executive  departments 
do  not  sit  in  it. 

The  obligation  of  military  service  is  universal  on  aU 
citizens  between  the  ages  of  sixteen  and  sixty. 

The  constitution  can  be  altered  by  the  Volksraad,  but 
only  by  a  three-fourths  majority  in  two  consecutive  an- 
nual sessions.  It  is  therefore  a  rigid  constitution,  like 
that  of  the  United  States  and  that  of  Switzerland. 

This  simple  scheme  of  government  seems  calculated  to 
throw  nearly  all  power  into  the  hands  of  the  legislature, 
leaving  the  President  comparatively  weak.  Nevertheless, 
in  point  of  fact  the  Presidents  have  been  very  important 
figures,  partly,  perhaps,  because  as  there  have  been  no  par- 
ties in  the  legislature,  there  have  been  no  party  leaders. 
From  1863  till  his  death  in  1888,  the  whole  policy  of  the 
State  was  guided  by  President  Brand,  a  lawyer  from 
Cape  Colony,  whom  the  people  elected  for  five  successive 
terms.  His  power  of  sitting  in  and  addressing  the  Volks- 
raad proved  to  be  of  the  utmost  value,  for  his  judgment 
and  patriotism  inspired  perfect  confidence.  His  successor, 


THE  OEANGE  FREE  STATE 


329 


wlio  at  the  time  of  my  visit  (November,  1895)  had  just 
been  obliged  by  ill  health  to  retire  from  of&ce,  enjoyed 
equal  respect,  and,  when  he  chose  to  exert  it,  almost  equal 
influence  with  the  legislature,  and  things  went  smoothly 
under  him.  I  gather  that  the  new  President,  elected  in 
1896,  is  similarly  respected  and  likely  to  enjoy  similar 
weight.  So  the  Speaker  of  the  legislature  has  been  an  in- 
fluential person,  because  his  office  devolves  functions  on 
him  which  the  absence  of  a  cabinet  makes  important. 
The  fact  is  that  in  every  government,  give  it  what  form 
you  please,  caU  it  by  what  name  you  will,  individual  men 
are  the  chief  factors,  and  if  the  course  of  things  is  such 
that  the  legislature  does  not  become  divided  into  parties 
and  is  not  called  on  to  produce  conspicuous  leaders,  gen- 
eral leadership  will  fall  to  the  executive  head  if  he  is  fit 
to  assume  it,  and  legislative  leadership  to  the  chairman 
of  the  Assembly.  Were  questions  to  arise  splitting  up 
the  people  and  the  legislature  into  factions,  the  situation 
would  change  at  once.  Oratorical  gifts  and  legislative 
strategy  would  become  valuable,  and  the  President  or  the 
Speaker  of  the  assembly  might  be  obscured  by  the  chiefs 
of  the  parties. 

The  people  of  the  Free  State  are  well  satisfied  with 
their  constitution,  and  show  little  disposition  to  alter  it. 
Some  of  the  wisest  heads,  however,  told  me  that  they 
thought  two  improvements  were  needed:  a  provision 
that  amendments  to  the  constitution,  after  having  passed 
the  Volksraad,  shoidd  be  voted  on  by  the  people  (as  in 
the  Swiss  Referendum),  and  a  provision  securing  to  the 
judges  their  salaries,  and  their  independence  of  the  Volks- 
raad. It  is  interesting  to  notice  that  both  here  and  in 
the  Transvaal  the  gravest  constitutional  questions  that 
have  arisen  turn  on  the  relations  between  the  legislative 
and  the  judicial  departments.   Some  years  ago  the  Free 


330 


IMPBESSIOJ^S  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


State  VoUisraad  claimed  the  right  to  commit  a  person  to 
prison  for  contempt,  and  to  direct  the  State  attorney  to 
prosecute  him.  The  judges  felt  bound  to  resist  what  they 
thought  an  unconstitutional  stretch  of  power  by  the  Raad. 
At  first  they  seemed  likely  to  be  defeated,  but  by  using 
their  opportunities  of  charging  jiu'ies  to  insist  on  their 
views  they  brought  public  opinion  round  to  their  side,  and 
the  Raad  ultimately  retired  from  the  position  it  had  taken 
up,  leaving  the  question  of  right  undetermined.  It  has 
never  been  definitely  settled  whether  the  courts  of  law 
are  (as  in  the  United  States)  the  authorized  interpreters 
of  the  constitution,  though  upon  principle  it  would  seem 
that  they  are.  These  South  African  constitutions  were 
drafted  by  simple  men  La  an  untechnical  way,  so  that 
many  legal  points  obvious  to  the  minds  of  American 
lawyers  were  left  untouched,  and  have  now  to  be  settled 
either  on  principle  or  according  to  the  wiU  of  what  may 
happen  to  be  the  predominant  power  for  the  time  being. 
It  is,  perhaps,  better  that  they  should  remain  in  abeyance 
until  public  opinion  has  grown  more  instructed  and  has 
had  fuller  opportunities  of  considering  them. 

Small  as  is  the  white  population  of  the  Orange  Free 
State,  its  geographical  position  and  the  high  average 
quality  of  its  citizens  secure  for  it  a  position  of  great 
significance  in  South  African  politics;  and  the  attitude 
it  might  take  would  be  an  important  factor  in  any  dis- 
pute between  the  British  government  and  the  Transvaal 
Republic.  To  this  subject  I  may  have  occasion  presently 
to  return.  Meanwhile  I  pass  on  to  describe  the  native 
state  which  lies  nearest  to  it,  which  has  been  most  closely 
connected  with  its  fortunes,  and  which  furnishes  in  some 
respects  an  interesting  parallel  to  it,  having  been  of  late 
years  the  most  quiet  and  contented  among  native  com- 
munities. 


CHAPTER  XX 


BASUTOLAND 

BASUTOLAND  is  a  comparatively  small  territory 
(10,300  square  miles)  somewhat  larger  than  Wales 
or  Massachusetts.  It  is  nearly  all  mountainous,  and  con- 
tains the  highest  summits  in  South  Africa,  some  of  them 
reaching  11,000  feet.  Few  European  travelers  visit  it, 
for  it  lies  quite  away  from  the  main  routes;  it  has  no 
commercial  importance,  and  its  white  population  is  ex- 
tremely small,  the  land  being  reserved  for  the  natives 
alone.  We  were  attracted  to  it  by  what  we  had  heard 
of  the  scenery ;  but  found,  when  we  came  to  traverse  it, 
that  the  social  conditions  were  no  less  interesting  than 
the  landscapes. 

The  easiest  approach  is  from  Bloemfontein.  Starting 
from  that  pleasant  little  town  one  bright  November  morn- 
ing on  the  top  of  the  Ladybrand  coach,  we  drove  over  wide 
and  nearly  level  stretches  of  pasture-land,  which  now,  after 
the  first  rains,  were  vividly  green,  and  beginning  to  be 
dotted  with  flowers.  The  road  was  only  a  track,  usually 
rough  and  full  of  ruts,  and  the  coach  was  an  old  one, 
whose  springs  had  lost  whatever  elasticity  they  might  once 
have  possessed,  so  that  it  was  only  by  holding  tight  on 
to  the  little  rail  at  the  back  of  the  seat  that  we  could 

331 


332 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


keep  our  places.  The  incessant  pitching  and  jolting 
would  have  been  intolerable  on  an  ordinary  drive ;  but 
here  the  beauty  of  the  vast  landscape,  the  keen  fresh- 
ness of  the  air,  and  the  brilliance  of  the  light  made  one 
forget  every  physical  discomfort.  About  noon,  after 
crossing  the  muddy  flood  of  the  Modder  River,  whose 
channel,  almost  dry  a  month  before,  had  now  been  filled 
by  the  rains,  we  entered  a  more  hilly  region,  and  came 
soon  after  noon  to  the  village  of  Thaba  'Ntshu,  called 
from  the  bold  rocky  peak  of  that  name,  which  is  a  laud- 
mark  for  all  the  country  round,  and  is  famous  in  history 
as  the  rallying-point  of  the  various  parties  of  emigrant 
Boers  who  quitted  Cape  Colony  in  the  Great  Trek  of 
1836-37.  Near  it  is  a  large  native  reservation,  where 
thousands  of  Barolong  Kafirs  live,  tilling  the  better  bits 
of  soil,  and  grazing  their  cattle  aU  over  the  rolling  pas- 
tures. Some  ten  or  fifteen  mUes  farther  the  track  reaches 
the  top  of  a  long  ascent,  and  a  magnificent  prospect  is  re- 
vealed to  the  southeast  of  the  noble  range  of  the  Maluti 
Mountains,  standing  out  in  the  dazzling  clearness  of  this 
dry  African  air,  yet  mellowed  by  distance  to  tints  of 
delicate  beauty.  We  were  reminded  of  the  view  of  the 
Pjo-enees  from  Pau,  where,  however,  the  mountains  are 
rather  higher  above  the  observer  than  here,  and  of  the 
view  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  from  Calgary,  on  the  Cana- 
dian Pacific  Railway.  From  this  point  onward  the  road 
mounts  successive  ridges,  between  which  lie  rich  hollows 
of  agricultural  land,  and  from  the  tops  of  which  nearer 
and  nearer  views  of  the  Maluti  range  are  gained.  There 
was  hardly  a  tree  visible,  save  those  which  Europeans 
have  planted  round  the  farm-houses  that  one  finds  every 
seven  or  eight  miles ;  and  I  dare  say  the  country  would 
be  dreary  in  the  dry  season  or  in  dull  gi"ay  weather.  But 
as  we  saw  it,  the  wealth  of  sunlight,  the  blue  of  the  sky 


BASUTOLAND 


333 


above,  tlie  boundless  stretebes  of  verdure  beneatb,  made 
tbe  drive  a  di'eam  of  delight.  When  the  sun  sank  the 
constellations  came  out  in  this  pure,  dry  African  air  with 
a  brilliance  unknown  to  Europe ;  and  we  tired  our  eyes 
in  gazing  on  the  Centaur  and  the  Argo  and  those  two 
Magellanic  clouds  by  which  one  finds  the  position  of  the 
southern  pole.  Soon  after  dark  we  came  to  the  top  of 
the  last  high  hUl,  and  saw  what  seemed  an  abyss  open- 
ing beneath.  The  descent  was  steep,  but  a  beaten  track 
led  down  it,  reputed  the  most  dangerous  piece  of  road  in 
the  Free  State ;  and  the  driver  regaled  us  with  narra- 
tives of  the  accidents  that  had  taken  place  on  the  fre- 
quent occasions  when  the  coach  had  been  upset,  add- 
ing, however,  that  nobody  had  ever  been  or  would  be 
killed  while  he  held  the  reins.  He  proved  as  good  as  his 
word,  and  brought  us  safely  to  Ladybrand  at  9  p.  M.,  after 
more  than  twelve  hours  of  a  drive  so  fatiguing  that  only 
the  marvelously  bracing  air  enabled  us  to  feel  none  the 
worse  for  it. 

Ladybrand  is  a  pretty  little  hamlet  lying  at  the  foot 
of  the  great  flat-topped  hill,  called  the  Plaat  Berg,  which 
the  perilous  road  crosses,  and  looking  out  from  groves  of 
Australian  gum-trees,  across  fertile  corn-fields  and  mea- 
dows, to  the  Caledon  River  and  the  ranges  of  Basutoland. 
A  ride  of  eight  miles  brings  one  to  the  ferry  (which  in  the 
dry  season  becomes  a  shallow  ford)  across  this  stream, 
and  on  the  farther  shore  one  is  again  under  the  British 
flag  at  Maseru,  the  residence  of  the  imperial  commis- 
sioner who  supervises  the  administration  of  the  country. 
Here  are  some  sixty  Europeans — ofiS.cials,  police,  and  store- 
keepers— and  more  than  two  thousand  natives.  Neither 
here  nor  anywhere  else  in  Basutoland  is  there  an  inn; 
those  few  persons  who  visit  the  country  find  quarters  in 
the  stores  which  several  whites  have  been  permitted  to 


334  IMPRESSIONS  OP  SOUTH  AFRICA 


establish,  unless  they  have,  as  we  had,  the  good  fortune 
to  be  the  guests  of  the  Commissioner  and  the  missionaries. 

Basutoland  is  the  Switzerland  of  South  Africa,  and, 
very  appropriately,  is  the  part  of  South  Africa  where  the 
old  inhabitants,  defended  by  their  hills,  have  retained  the 
largest  measure  of  freedom.  Although  most  of  it  is  cov- 
ered with  lofty  mountains,  it  has,  Like  Switzerland,  one 
comparatively  level  and  fertile  tract  —  that  which  lies 
along  the  left  bank  of  the  Caledon  River.  Morija,  the 
oldest  French  mission  station,  lies  in  a  pretty  hollow 
between  five  and  six  thousand  feet  above  the  sea, — 
nearly  all  Basutoland  is  above  5000  feet, —  some  sixteen 
miles  southeast  from  Maseru.  Groves  of  trees  and  luxu- 
riant gardens  give  softness  and  verdure  to  the  landscape, 
and  among  them  the  mission  houses  and  schools,  and  print- 
ing-house whence  Basuto  books  are  issued,  lie  scattered 
about,  uj)  and  down  the  slopes  of  the  hill.  Though  there 
are  plenty  of  streams  in  Basutoland,  there  is  hardly  any 
swampy  ground,  and  consequently  little  or  no  fever,  so 
the  missionaries  invalided  from  the  Zambesi  frequently 
come  here  to  recruit.  Morija  is  now,  and  has  been  for 
many  years  past,  in  the  hands  of  Scottish  Presbyterian 
clergymen,  of  course  under  the  direction  of  the  Paris 
Society,  and  they  gave  us  a  hearty  welcome.  They  have 
large  and  flourishing  schools,  from  which  a  considerable 
number  of  young  Kafirs  go  out  every  year  among  their 
countrymen  and  become  an  effective  civilizing  influence. 
There  is  among  the  Bantu  tribes  so  little  religion,  in  the 
European  sense  of  the  word,  that  the  natives  seem  never 
to  have  felt  the  impulse  to  persecute,  and  hardly  ever  to 
obstruct  the  preaching  of  Christianity.  When  opposition 
comes,  it  comes  fi*om  the  witch-doctor  or  medicine-man, 
who  feels  his  craft  in  danger,  seldom  from  the  chief. 


BASUTOLAND 


335 


Here  most  of  the  leading  men  have  been  and  still  are 
on  good  terms  with  the  missionaries.  The  Paramount 
Chief  of  the  whole  country  lives  three  mUes  from  Mori j  a, 
at  Matsieng,  where  he  has  established,  as  the  wont  of  the 
Kafirs  is,  a  new  kraal  on  the  top  of  a  breezy  hUl,  forsak- 
ing the  residence  of  his  father  in  the  valley  beneath. 
Here  we  visited  him. 

Lerothodi,  the  Paramount  Chief,  is  the  son  of  Letsie 
and  grandson  of  Moshesh,  and  now  ranks  with  Khama 
as  the  most  important  native  potentate  south  of  the 
Zambesi.  He  is  a  strong,  thick-set  man,  who  looks  about 
fifty  years  of  age,  and  is  not  wanting  either  in  intelli- 
gence or  in  firmness.  He  was  dressed  in  a  gray  shoot- 
ing-coat and  trousers  of  gray  cloth,  with  a  neat  new 
black,  low-crowned  hat,  and  received  the  (deputy)  acting 
Commissioner  and  ourselves  in  a  stone  house  which  he 
has  recently  built  as  a  sort  of  council-chamber  and  re- 
ception-room for  white  visitors.  Hard  by,  another  house, 
also  of  stone,  was  being  erected  to  lodge  such  visitors, 
and  over  its  doorway  a  native  sculptor  had  carved  the 
figure  of  a  crocodile,  the  totem  of  the  Basutos.  When  a 
chief  sits  to  administer  justice  among  the  tribesmen,  as 
he  does  on  most  mornings,  he  always  sits  in  the  open  air, 
a  little  way  from  his  sleeping-huts.  We  found  a  crowd  of 
natives  gathered  at  the  levee,  whom  Lerothodi  quitted  to 
lead  us  into  the  reception-room.  He  was  accompanied 
by  six  or  seven  magnates  and  counselors, —  one  of  the 
most  trusted  counselors  (a  Christian)  was  not  a  person  of 
rank,  but  owed  his  influence  to  his  character  and  talents, 
—  and  among  these  one  spoke  EngUsh  and  interpreted  to 
us  the  compliments  which  Lerothodi  delivered,  together 
with  his  assurances  of  friendship  and  respect  for  the 
Protecting  Power,  while  we  responded  with  phrases  of 


336 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


similar  friendliness.  The  counselors,  listening  with  pro- 
found and  impressive  gravity,  echoed  the  sentences  of 
the  chief  vsith  a  chorus  of  "  ehs,"  a  sound  which  it  is  hard 
to  reproduce  by  letters,  for  it  is  a  long,  slow,  deep  expira- 
tion of  the  breath  in  a  sort  of  singing  tune.  The  Kafirs 
constantly  use  it  to  express  assent  and  appreciation,  and 
manage  to  throw  a  great  deal  of  apparent  feeling  into  it. 
Presently  one  or  two  of  them  spoke,  one  in  pretty  good 
English,  dilating  on  the  wish  of  the  Basuto  ^  native  to  be 
guided  in  the  path  of  prosperity  by  the  British  govern- 
ment. Then  Lerothodi  led  us  out  and  showed  us,  with 
some  pride,  the  new  guest-house  he  was  building,  and  the 
huts  inhabited  by  his  wives,  all  scrupulously  neat.  Each 
hut  stands  in  an  iuclosure  surrounded  by  a  taU  fence  of 
reeds,  and  the  floors  of  red  clay  were  perfectly  hard, 
smooth,  and  spotlessly  clean.  The  news  of  the  reception 
accorded  shortly  before  (in  Loudon)  to  Khama  had  kin- 
dled in  him  a  desire  to  visit  England,  but  his  hints  thrown 
out  to  that  effect  were  met  by  the  Acting  Commissionex^'s 
remark  that  Khama's  total  abstinence  and  general  hos- 
tility to  the  use  of  intoxicants  had  been  a  main  cause  for 
the  welcome  given  him,  and  that  if  other  chiefs  desired 
like  treatment  in  England  they  had  better  emulate 
Khama.    This  shot  went  home. 

From  the  chiefs  kraal  we  had  a  delightful  ride  of 
some  twenty  mUes  to  a  spot  neai'  the  foot  of  the  high 
mountains,  where  we  camped  for  the  night.  The  track 
leads  along  the  base  of  the  Maluti  range,  sometimes  over 
a  rolling  table-land,  sometimes  over  hills  and  down 
through  valleys,  all  either  eidtivated  or  covered  with 

1  The  word  "  Ba  Sot'ho  "  is  in  strictness  used  for  the  people,  "  Se 
Sot'ho"  for  the  language,  "Le  Sot'ho"  for  the  country  ;  but  in  Eng- 
lish it  is  more  convenient  to  apply  "  Basuto  "  to  aU  three. 


BASUTOLAND 


337 


fresh  close  grass.  The  Malutis  consist  of  beds  of  sand- 
stone and  shale,  overlaid  by  an  outflow  of  igneous  rock 
from  two  to  five  thousand  feet  thick.  They  rise  very 
steeply,  sometimes  breaking  into  long  lines  of  dark- 
brown  precipice,  and  the  crest  seldom  sinks  lower  than 
7000  feet.  Behind  them  to  the  southeast  are  the  water- 
falls, one  of  which,  630  feet  high,  is  tiescribed  as  the 
grandest  cascade  in  Africa  south  of  the  Zambesi.  It 
was  only  two  days'  journey  away,  but  unfortunately  we 
had  not  the  time  to  visit  it. 

The  country  we  were  traversing  beneath  the  mountains 
was  full  of  beauty,  so  graceful  were  the  slopes  and  roUs 
of  the  hUls,  so  bright  the  green  of  the  pastures ;  while  the 
sky,  this  being  the  rainy  season,  had  a  soft  tone  like  that 
of  England,  and  was  flecked  with  white  clouds  sailing 
across  the  blue.  It  was  also  a  prosperous-looking  coun- 
try, for  the  rich  soil  supported  many  villages,  and  many 
natives,  men  as  well  as  women,  were  to  be  seen  at  work 
in  the  fields  as  we  rode  by.  Except  where  streams  have 
cut  deeply  into  the  soft  earth,  one  gets  about  easily  on 
horseback,  for  there  are  no  woods  save  a  little  scrub 
clinging  to  the  sides  of  the  steeper  glens.  We  were  told 
that  the  goats  eat  off  the  young  trees,  and  that  the 
natives  have  used  the  older  ones  for  fuel.  In  the  after- 
noon we  passed  St.  Michael's,  the  seat  of  a  flourishing 
Koman  Catholic  mission,  and  took  our  way  up  the  steep 
and  stony  track  of  a  kloof  (ravine)  which  led  to  a  plateau 
some  6000  feet  or  more  above  sea-level.  The  soil  of  this 
plateau  is  a  deep-red  loam,  formed  by  the  decomposi- 
tion of  the  trap-rock,  and  is  of  exceptional  fertility,  like 
the  decomposed  traps  of  Oregon  and  of  the  Deccan. 
Here  we  pitched  our  tent,  and  found  our  liberal  supply  of 
blankets  none  too  liberal,  for  the  air  was  keen,  and  the 

22 


338  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


difference  between  day  and  night  temperature  is  great  in 
these  latitudes.  Next  morning,  starting  soon  after  dawn, 
we  rode  across  the  deep-cut  beds  of  streams  and  over 
breezy  pastures  for  some  six  or  seven  miles,  to  the  base  of 
the  main  Maluti  range,  and  after  a  second  breakfast  pre- 
pared for  the  ascent  of  the  great  summit,  which  we  had 
been  admiring  for  two  days  as  it  towered  over  the  long 
line  of  peaks  or  peered  alone  from  the  mists  which  often 
enveloped  the  rest  of  the  range.  It  is  called  Machacha, 
and  is  a  conspicuous  object  from  Ladybrand  and  the 
Free  State  uplands  nearly  as  far  as  Thaba  'Ntshu.  Our 
route  lay  up  a  grassy  hollow  so  steep  that  we  had  thought 
our  friend,  the  deputy  Acting  Commissioner,  must  be  jest- 
ing when  he  pointed  up  it  and  told  us  that  was  the  way 
we  had  to  ride.  For  a  pedestrian  it  was  a  piece  of  hand- 
and-foot  climbing,  and  seemed  impossible  for  horses.  But 
up  the  horses  went.  They  are  a  wonderful  breed,  these 
little  Basuto  nags.  This  region  is  the  part  of  South 
Africa  where  the  horse  seems  most  thoroughly  at  home 
and  happy,  and  is  the  only  part  where  the  natives  breed 
and  ride  him.  Sixty  years  ago  there  was  not  a  horse  in 
the  country  —  the  animal,  it  need  hardly  be  said,  is  not  a 
native  of  South  Africa.  But  by  1852,  the  Basutos  had 
plenty  of  ponies,  and  used  them  in  the  short  campaign  of 
that  yeai'  with  extraordinaiy  effect.  They  are  small, 
seldom  exceeding  twelve  hands  in  height,  a  little  larger 
than  the  ponies  of  Iceland,  very  hardy,  and  wonderfully 
clever  on  hills,  able  not  only  to  mount  a  slope  whose 
angle  is  30°  to  35°,  but  to  keep  their  footing  when  ridden 
horizontally  along  it.  A  rider  new  to  the  country  finds 
it  hard  not  to  slip  off  over  the  tail  when  the  animal  is 
ascending,  or  over  the  head  when  he  is  descending. 
The  hollow  brought  us  to  a  col  fuUy  7500  feet  above 


BASUTOLAKD 


339 


the  sea,  from  which  we  descended  some  way  into  a  valley 
behind,  and  then  rode  for  three  or  four  miles  along  the 
steep  sides,  gradually  mounting,  and  having  below  us 
on  the  right  a  deep  glen,  covered  everywhere  with  rich 
grass,  and  from  the  depths  of  which  the  murmur  of  a 
rushing  stream,  a  sound  rare  in  South  Africa,  rose  up 
softly  through  the  clear,  stUl  air.  At  length  we  reached 
the  mountain  crest,  and  after  following  it  for  a  space, 
and  then,  to  avoid  the  crags  along  the  crest,  guiding  our 
horses  across  the  extremely  steep  declivities  by  which 
it  falls  to  the  east,  came  to  a  pass  between  precipices, 
with  a  sharp  rock  towering  up  in  the  middle  of  it  and 
a  glen  falling  abruptly  to  the  west.  Beyond  this  point 
—  8500  feet  or  so  above  sea-level  —  the  slopes  were  too 
steep  even  for  the  Basuto  horses,  and  therefore  we  left 
them  in  charge  of  one  of  our  Kafir  attendants.  A  more 
rich  and  varied  alpine  flora  than  clothed  th0  pastures  all 
round  I  have  seldom  seen.  The  flowers  had  those  brilliant 
hues  that  belong  to  the  plants  of  our  high  European  moun- 
tains, and  they  grew  in  marvelous  profusion.  They  were 
mostly  of  the  same  genera  as  one  finds  in  the  Alps  or  the 
Pyrenees,  but  all  or  nearly  all  of  different  species ;  and 
among  those  I  found  several,  particularly  two  beautiful 
Gerania,  which  the  authorities  at  Kew  have  since  told  me 
are  new  to  science.  It  was  interesting  to  come  here  upon 
two  kinds  of  heath — the  first  we  had  seen  since  quitting 
the  Cape  peninsula,  for,  rich  as  that  peninsula  is  in  heaths, 
there  are  very  few  to  be  found  in  other  parts  of  South 
Africa,  and  those  only,  I  think,  upon  high  mountains. 

After  a  short  rest  we  started  for  the  final  climb,  first 
up  a  steep  acclivity,  covered  with  low  shrubs  and  stones, 
and  then  across  a  wide  hollow,  where  several  springs  of 
deliciously  cold  water  break  out.    Less  than  an  hour's 


840 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


easy  work  brought  us  to  the  highest  point  of  a  ridge 
which  fell  northward  in  a  precipice,  and  our  Kafirs  de- 
clared that  this  was  the  summit  of  Machacha.  But  right 
in  front  of  us,  not  half  a  mile  away,  on  the  other  side  of 
a  deep  semicircular  gulf, —  what  is  called  in  Scotland 
a  corrie, — a  huge  black  cliff  reared  its  head  400  feet 
above  us,  and  above  everything  else  in  sight.  This  was 
evidently  the  true  top,  and  must  be  ascended.  The  Kafii's, 
perhaps  thinking  they  had  done  enough  for  one  day,  pro- 
tested that  it  was  inaccessible.  "  Nonsense,"  we  answered ; 
"  that  is  where  we  are  going  " ;  and  when  we  started  off  at 
full  speed  they  followed.  Keeping  along  the  crest  for  about 
half  a  mile  to  the  eastward  —  it  is  an  arete  which  breaks 
down  to  the  corrie  in  tremendous  precipices,  but  slopes 
more  gently  to  the  south  —  we  came  to  the  base  of  the 
black  cHff,  and  presently  discovered  a  way  by  which, 
climbing  hither  and  thither  through  the  crags,  we  reached 
the  summit,  and  saw  an  immense  landscape  unroll  itself 
before  us.  It  was  one  of  those  views  which  have  the 
charm,  so  often  absent  from  mountain  panoramas,  of 
combining  a  wide  stretch  of  plain  in  one  direction  with  a 
tossing  sea  of  mountain-peaks  in  another.  To  the  north- 
east and  east  and  southeast,  one  saw  nothing  but  moun- 
tains, some  of  them,  especially  in  the  far  northeast,  toward 
Natal,  apparently  as  lofty  as  that  on  which  we  stood,  and 
many  of  them  built  on  bold  and  noble  lines.  To  the  south- 
east, where  are  the  great  waterfalls  which  are  one  of  the 
glories  of  Basutoland,  the  general  height  was  less,  but  a 
few  peaks  seemed  to  reach  10,000  feet.  At  our  feet,  to 
the  west  and  southwest,  lay  the  smiling  corn-fields  and  pas- 
tures we  had  traversed  the  day  before,  and  beyond  them 
the  rich  and  populous  valley  of  the  Caledon  River,  and 
beyond  it,  again,  the  rolling  uplands  of  the  Orange  Free 


BASUTOLAND 


341 


State,  with  the  peak  of  Thaba  'Ntshu  just  visible,  and  still 
farther  a  blue  ridge,  faint  in  the  extreme  distance,  that 
seemed  to  lie  on  the  other  side  of  Bloemfontein,  nearly  one 
hundred  mUes  away.  The  sky  was  bright  above  us,  but 
thunder-storms  hung  over  the  plains  of  the  Free  State  be- 
hind Ladybrand,  and  now  and  then  one  caught  a  forked 
tongue  of  light  flashing  from  among  them.  It  was  a  mag- 
nificent landscape,  whose  bareness  —  for  there  is  scarcely 
a  tree  upon  these  slopes  —  was  more  than  compensated  by 
the  brilliance  of  the  light  and  the  clearness  of  the  air, 
which  made  the  contrasts  between  the  sunlit  valley  of  the 
Caledon  and  the  solemn  shadows  under  the  thunder-clouds 
more  striking,  and  the  tone  of  the  distant  ranges  more  deep 
and  rich  in  color,  than  in  any  similar  prospect  one  could 
recall  from  the  mountain  watch-towers  of  Europe.  Nor 
was  the  element  of  historical  interest  wanting.  Fifteen 
miles  away,  but  seeming  to  lie  almost  at  our  feet,  was  the 
flat-topped  hill  of  Thaba  Bosiyo,  the  oft-besieged  strong- 
hold of  Moshesh,  and  beyond  it  the  broad  table-land  of 
Berea,  where  the  Basutos  fought,  and  almost  overcame, 
the  forces  of  Sir  George  Cathcart  in  that  war  of  1852 
which  was  so  fateful  both  to  Basutoland  and  to  the 
Free  State. 

Less  than  a  mUe  from  the  peak  on  which  we  sat,  we 
could  descry,  in  the  precipice  which  surrounds  the  great 
corrie,  the  black  mouth  of  a  cave.  It  was  the  den  of  the 
cannibal  chief  Machacha,  whose  name  has  clung  to  the 
mountain,  and  who  established  himself  there  seventy 
years  ago,  when  the  ravages  of  Tshaka,  the  Zulu  king, 
had  driven  the  Kafir  tribes  of  Natal  to  seek  safety  in 
flight,  and  reduced  some  among  them,  for  want  of  other 
food,  to  take  to  human  flesh.  Before  that  time  this 
mountain-land  had  been  inhabited  only  by  wandering 

22* 


342  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


Bushmen,  who  have  left  marks  of  their  presence  in 
pictures  on  the  rocks.  Here  and  there  among  the  crags 
jabbering  baboons  darted  about,  and  great  hawks  sailed 
in  circles  above  us.  Otherwise  we  had  seen  no  living 
wild  creature  since  we  left  the  pastures  of  the  valley. 

The  summit  of  Machacha  is  composed  of  a  dark  igne- 
ous rock,  apparently  a  sort  of  amygdaloidal  trap,  with 
white  calcareous  crystals  scattered  through  it.  The 
height  is  given  on  the  maps  as  11,000  feet ;  but  so  far  as 
one  could  judge  by  frequent  observations  from  below 
and  by  calculations  made  during  the  ascent,  I  should 
think  it  not  more  than  10,500.  It  seems  to  be  the  culmi- 
nating point  of  the  Maluti  Range,  but  may  be  exceeded 
in  height  by  Mont  aux  Sources,  eighty  miles  off  to  the 
northeast,  where  Basutoland  touches  Natal  on  the  one 
side  and  the  Free  State  on  the  other. 

Descending  by  a  somewhat  more  direct  route,  which  we 
struck  out  for  ourselves,  we  rejoined  our  horses  at  the 
pass  where  we  had  left  them  three  hours  before,  and  from 
there  plunged  down  the  kloof,  or  ravine,  between  the 
precipices  which  lead  to  the  foot  of  the  mountain.  It  was 
here  too  steep  to  ride;  indeed,  it  was  about  as  steep  a 
slope  as  one  can  descend  on  foot  with  comfort,  the  angle 
being  in  some  places  fully  40°.  A  grand  piece  of  sce- 
nery, for  the  dark  rock  walls  rose  menacing  on  either 
hand ;  and  also  a  beautiful  one,  for  the  flowers,  especially 
two  brilliant  shrubby  geraniums,  were  profuse  and  gor- 
geous in  hue.  At  the  bottom,  after  a  very  rough  scramble, 
we  mounted  our  horses  and  hastened  along  to  escape  the 
thunder-storm  which  was  now  nearly  upon  us,  and  which 
presently  drove  us  for  shelter  into  a  native  hut,  where  a 
Basuto  woman,  with  her  infant  hanging  in  a  cloth  on  her 
back,  was  grinding  corn  between  two  stones.    She  went 


BASUTOLAND 


343 


on  with  her  work,  and  presently  addressed  my  wife, 
asking  (as  was  explained  to  ns)  for  a  piece  of  soap 
wherewith  to  smear  her  face,  presumably  as  a  more 
fragrant  substitute  for  the  clay  or  ochre  with  which  the 
Basuto  ladies  cover  their  countenances.  The  hut  was 
clean  and  sweet,  and,  indeed,  all  through  Basutoland  we 
were  struck  by  the  neat  finish  of  the  dwellings  and  of 
the  reed  fences  which  inclose  them.  "When  the  storm 
had  passed  away  over  the  mountains,  "  growling  and 
muttering  into  other  lands,"  and  the  vast  horizon  was 
again  flooded  with  evening  sunshine,  we  rode  swiftly 
away,  first  over  the  rolling  plateau  we  had  traversed  in 
the  forenoon,  then  turning  to  the  north  along  the  top  of 
the  sandstone  cliffs  that  inclose  the  valley  of  the  Kaloe 
River,  where  Bushman  pictures  adorn  the  caves.  At  last, 
as  night  fell,  we  dropped  into  the  vaUey  of  the  Kaloe  it- 
self, and  so,  slowly  through  the  darkness,  for  the  horses 
were  tired,  and  the  track  (which  crosses  the  river  four 
times)  was  rough  and  stony,  came  at  last  to  the  mission 
station  of  Thaba  Bosiyo.  Here  we  were  welcomed  by  the 
Swiss  pastor  in  charge  of  the  mission,  Mr.  E.  Jacottet, 
whose  collections  of  Basuto  and  Barotse  popular  tales  have 
made  him  well  known  to  the  students  of  folk-lore.  No 
man  knows  the  Basutos  better  than  he  and  his  colleague, 
Mr.  Dyke  of  Mori j  a ;  and  what  they  told  us  was  of  the 
highest  interest.  Next  day  was  Sunday,  and  gave  us  the 
opportunity  of  seeing  a  large  congregation  of  Basuto 
converts  and  of  hearing  their  singing,  the  excellence  of 
which  reminded  us  of  the  singing  of  negro  congregations 
in  the  Southern  States  of  America.  We  had  also  two 
interesting  visits.  One  was  from  an  elderly  Basuto  mag- 
nate of  the  neighborhood,  who  was  extremely  anxious 
to  know  if  Queen  Victoria  really  existed,  or  was  a  mere 


344  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


figment  of  the  British  government.  He  had  met  many 
white  men,  he  told  us,  but  none  of  them  had  ever  seen 
the  Queen,  and  he  could  not  imagine  how  it  was  possible 
that  a  great  chieftaiuess  should  not  be  seen  by  her  people. 
We  satisfied  his  curiosity  by  giving  full  details  of  the 
times,  places,  and  manner  in  which  the  British  sovereign 
receives  her  subjects,  and  he  went  away,  declaring  him- 
self convinced  and  more  loyal  than  ever.  The  second 
visitor  was  a  lady  who  had  come  to  attend  church.  She 
is  the  senior  wife  of  a  chief  named  Thekho,  a  son  of 
Moshesh.  She  impressed  us  as  a  person  of  great  force 
of  character  and  great  conversational  gifts,  was  dressed 
in  a  fashionable  hat  and  an  enormous  black  velvet  man- 
tle, and  pUed  us  with  numerous  questions  regarding  the 
Queen,  her  family,  and  her  government.  She  lives  on  the 
hill  among  her  dependents,  exerts  great  influence,  and 
has  done  good  service  in  resisting  the  reactionary  ten- 
dencies of  her  brother-in-law  Masupha,  a  dogged  and 
turbulent  old  pagan. 

The  mission  station  lies  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  of  Thaba 
Bosiyo,  in  a  singular  region  where  crags  of  white  or  gray 
sandstone,  detached  from  the  main  mass  of  the  tabular 
hiUs,  stand  up  in  solitary  shafts  and  pinnacles,  and  give  a 
weird,  uncanny  look  to  the  landscape.  The  land  is  fertile 
and  well  cultivated,  but  the  alluvial  soU  is  intersected  in 
all  du"ections  by  the  channels  of  streams,  which  have  dug 
so  deep  into  it  that  much  good  land  is  eve  y  year  lost  by 
the  mischief  the  streams  work  when  in  floe  i.  The  sides 
of  these  channels  are  usually  vertical,  and  often  eight,  ten, 
or  even  twelve  feet  high,  so  that  they  offer  a  serious  ob- 
stacle to  travelers  either  by  wagon  or  on  horseback.  The 
hill  itself  is  so  peculiar  in  structure,  and  has  played  such 
a  part  in  history,  as  to  deserve  some  words  of  description. 


BASUTOLAND 


345 


It  is  nearly  two  miles  long  and  less  than  a  mile  across, 
elliptical  in  form,  rising  about  five  hundred  feet  above 
its  base,  and  breaking  down  on  every  side  in  a  line  of 
cliffs,  which  on  the  northwest  and  north  side  (toward  the 
mission  station)  are  from  twenty  to  forty  feet  high.  On 
the  other  side,  which  I  could  not  so  carefully  examine, 
they  are  apparently  higher.  These  cliffs  are  so  continu- 
ous all  round  as  to  leave  —  so  one  is  told  —  only  three 
spots  in  the  circumference  where  they  can  be  climbed; 
and  although  I  noticed  one  or  two  other  places  where  a 
nimble  cragsman  might  make  his  way  up,  it  is  at  those 
three  points  only  that  an  attack  by  a  number  of  men 
could  possibly  be  made.  The  easiest  point  is  where  a 
dike  of  igneous  rock,  thirty  feet  wide,  strikes  up  the  face 
of  the  hill  from  the  north-northwest,  cutting  through  the 
sandstone  precipice.  The  decomposition  of  this  dike  has 
opened  a  practicable  path,  from  fifteen  to  twenty -five  feet 
in  width,  to  the  top.  The  top  is  a  large  grassy  flat,  with 
springs  of  water  and  plenty  of  good  pasture. 

It  was  this  natural  fortress  that  the  Basuto  chief  Mo- 
sheshwe,  or,  as  he  is  usually  caUed,  Moshesh,  chose  for  his 
dwelling  and  the  stronghold  of  his  tribe,  in  A.  D.  1824. 
The  conquests  of  the  ferocious  Tshaka  had  driven  thou- 
sands of  Kafirs  from  their  homes  in  Natal  and  on  both 
sides  of  the  Vaal  River.  Clans  had  been  scattered,  and  the 
old  dynasties  rooted  out  or  bereft  of  their  influence  and 
power.  In  the  midst  of  this  confusion,  a  young  man,  the 
younger  son  of  a  chief  of  no  high  lineage,  and  belonging 
to  a  small  tribe,  gathered  round  him  a  number  of  minor 
clans  and  fugitives  from  various  quarters,  and  by  his 
policy — astute,  firm,  and  tenacious — built  them  up  into 
what  soon  became  a  powerful  nation.  Moving  hither 
and  thither  along  the  foot  of  the  great  Maluti  range,  his 


346  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


skilfiil  eye  fixed  on  Thaba  Bosiyo  as  a  place  fit  to  be  the 
headquarters  of  the  nation.  There  was  good  land  all 
around,  the  approaches  could  be  easily  watched,  and  the 
hill  itself,  made  almost  impregnable  by  nature,  supplied 
pasture  for  the  cattle  as  well  as  perennial  water.  By  tact- 
fully conciliating  the  formidable  tribes  and  boldly  raiding 
the  weaker  ones,  Moshesh  rapidly  acquired  wealth  (that  is 
to  say,cattle),  strength,  and  reputation,  so  that  in  1836, when 
the  emigrant  Boers  moved  up  into  what  is  now  the  Free 
State,  he  was  already  the  second  power  north  of  the 
mountains,  inferior  only  to  the  terrible  MosiHkatze.  The 
latter  on  one  occasion  (in  1831)  had  sent  a  strong  force  of 
MatabiH  against  him.  Moshesh  retired  into  his  hiU,  which 
he  defended  by  rolling  down  stones  on  the  assailants;  and 
when  the  invaders  were  presently  obliged  to  retreat  for 
want  of  food,  he  sent  supplies  to  them  on  their  way  back, 
declaring  his  desire  to  be  at  peace  with  aU  men.  The 
Matabili  never  attacked  him  again.  In  1833  he  intimated 
to  the  missionaries  of  the  Paris  Evangelical  Society  his 
willingness  to  receive  them,  planted  them  at  Morija,  and 
gave  them  afterward  their  present  station  at  the  foot  of 
Thaba  Bosiyo,  his  own  village  being,  of  course,  on  the 
top.  Their  counsels  were  of  infinite  value  to  him  in  the 
troublous  times  that  followed,  and  he  repaid  them  by 
constant  protection  and  encouragement.  But  though  he 
listened,  like  so  many  Kafir  chiefs,  to  sermons,  enjoyed 
the  society  of  his  French  and  Scottish  friends,  and  was 
himself  fond  of  quoting  Scripture,  he  never  became  a 
Christian,  and  was  even  thought  to  have,  Uke  Solomon, 
fallen  in  his  old  age  somewhat  more  under  heathen  in- 
fluences. Many  were  the  wars  he  had  to  sustain  with 
the  native  tribes  who  lived  round  him,  as  well  as  with 
the  white  settlers  in  the  Orange  River  territory  to  the 


BASUTOLAND 


347 


north,  and  many  the  escapes  from  danger  which  his 
crafty  and  versatile  policy  secured.  Two  of  these  wars 
deserve  special  mention,  for  both  are  connected  with  the 
place  I  am  describing.  In  December,  1852,  Sir  Greorge 
Cathcart,  then  Governor  of  Cape  Colony,  crossed  the 
Caledon  River  a  little  above  Maseru  and  led  a  force  of 
two  thousand  British  infantry  and  five  hundred  cavalry, 
besides  artillery,  against  the  Basutos.  One  of  the  three  di- 
visions in  which  the  army  moved  was  led  into  an  ambush, 
severely  handled  by  the  nimble  Basuto  horsemen,  and 
obliged  to  retreat.  The  division  which  Sir  George  him- 
self led  found  itself  confronted,  when  it  reached  the  foot 
of  Thaba  Bosiyo,  by  a  body  of  Basutos  so  numerous  and 
active  that  it  had  great  difllculty  in  holding  its  ground, 
and  might  have  been  destroyed  but  for  the  timely  arrival 
of  the  third  division  just  before  sunset.  The  British 
general  intrenched  himself  for  the  night  in  a  strong  po- 
sition; and  next  morning,  realizing  at  length  the  diffi- 
culties of  his  enterprise,  set  out  to  retire  to  the  Caledon 
River.  Before  he  reached  it,  however,  a  message  from 
Moshesh  overtook  him.  That  wary  chief,  who  knew  the 
real  strength  of  the  British  better  than  did  his  people, 
had  been  driven  into  the  war  by  their  over-confidence 
and  their  reluctance  to  pay  the  cattle  fine  which  the 
Governor  had  demanded.  Now  that  there  was  a  chance 
of  getting  out  of  it  he  resolved  to  seize  that  chance,  and, 
after  consultation  with  one  of  the  French  missionaries, 
begged  Sir  George  Cathcart  for  peace,  acknowledging 
himself  to  be  the  weaker  party,  and  declaring  that  he 
would  do  his  best  to  keep  his  tribesmen  in  order.  The 
Governor,  glad  to  be  thus  relieved  of  what  might  have 
proved  a  long  and  troublesome  war,  accepted  these  over- 
tures.   The  British  army  was  marched  back  to  Cape 


348  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


Colony,  and  Moshesh  thereafter  enjoyed  the  fame  of  being 
the  only  native  potentate  who  had  come  out  of  a  strug- 
gle with  Great  Britain  virtually  if  not  formally  the  victor. 

But  a  still  severer  ordeal  was  in  store  for  the  virgin 
fortress  and  its  lord.  After  much  indecisive  strife,  the 
whites  and  the  Basutos  were,  in  1865,  again  engaged  in 
a  serious  war.  The  people  of  what  had  then  become  (see 
Chapter  XI)  the  Orange  Free  State  had  found  the  Ba- 
sutos troublesome  neighbors,  and  there  was  also  a  dispute 
regarding  the  frontier  line  between  them.  After  a  good 
deal  of  indecisive  fighting  the  Free  State  militia,  well 
practised  in  native  warfare,  invaded  Basutoland,  reduced 
many  of  the  native  strongholds,  and  besieged  Thaba 
Bosiyo.  A  storming  party  advanced  to  carry  the  hill 
by  assault,  mounting  the  steep  open  acclivity  to  the 
passage  which  is  opened  (as  already  mentioned)  by  the 
greenstone  dike  as  it  cuts  its  way  through  the  line 
of  sandstone  cliff.  They  had  driven  the  Basutos  before 
them,  and  had  reached  a  point  where  the  path  leads  up 
a  narrow  cleft  formed  b}'^  the  decomposition  of  the  dike, 
between  walls  of  rock  some  twenty  feet  high.  Thirty 
yards  more  would  have  brought  them  to  the  open  top 
of  the  hill,  and  Moshesh  would  have  been  at  their  mercy. 
But  at  this  moment  a  bullet  from  one  of  the  few  muskets 
which  the  defenders  possessed,  fired  by  a  good  marks- 
man from  the  rock  above  the  cleft,  pierced  Wepener, 
the  leader  of  the  assailants.  The  storming  party  halted, 
hesitated,  fell  back  to  the  bottom  of  the  hill,  and  the 
place  was  once  more  saved.  Not  long  after,  Moshesh, 
finding  himself  likely  to  be  overmastered,  besought  the 
Imperial  Grovernment,  which  had  always  regarded  him 
with  favor  since  the  conclusion  of  Sir  George  Cathcart's 
war,  to  receive  him  and  his  people,  "  and  let  them  live 


BASUTOLAND 


349 


under  the  large  folds  of  the  flag  of  England."  The  High 
Commissioner  intervened,  declaring  the  Basutos  to  be 
thenceforward  British  subjects,  and  in  1869  a  peace  was 
concluded  with  the  Free  State,  by  which  the  latter  ob- 
tained a  fertile  strip  of  territory  along  the  northwest 
branch  of  the  Caledon,  which  had  previously  been  held  by 
Moshesh,  while  the  Basutos  came  (in  1871)  under  the  ad- 
ministrative control  of  Cape  Colony.  Moshesh  died  soon 
afterward,  full  of  years  and  honor,  and  leaving  a  name 
which  has  become  famous  in  South  Africa.  He  was  one 
of  the  remarkable  instances,  like  Toussaint  L'Ouverture 
and  the  Hawaiian  king  Kamehameha  the  First,  of  a  man, 
sprung  from  a  savage  race,  who  effected  great  things  by 
a  display  of  wholly  exceptional  gifts.  His  sayings  have 
become  proverbs  in  native  mouths.  One  of  them  is  worth 
noting,  as  a  piece  of  grim  humor,  a  quality  rare  among 
the  Kafirs.  Some  of  his  chief  men  had  been  urging  him, 
after  he  had  become  powerful,  to  take  vengeance  upon 
certain  cannibals  who  were  believed  to  have  killed  and 
eaten  his  grandparents.  Moshesh  replied  :  "  I  must  con- 
sider weU  before  I  disturb  the  sepulchers  of  my  ances- 
tors." Basutoland  remained  quiet  till  1879,  when  the 
Cape  government,  urged,  it  would  appear,  by  the  restless 
spirit  of  Sir  Bartle  Frere  (then  Governor),  conceived  the 
unhappy  project  of  disarming  the  Basutos.  It  was  no 
doubt  a  pity  that  so  many  of  them  possessed  firearms; 
but  it  would  have  been  better  to  let  them  keep  their 
weapons  than  to  provoke  a  war;  and  the  Cape  Prime 
Minister,  who  met  the  nation  in  its  great  popular  assem- 
bly, the  Pitso,  had  ample  notice  through  the  speeches  de- 
livered there  by  important  chiefs  of  the  resistance  with 
which  any  attempt  to  enforce  disarmament  would  be  met. 
However,  rash  counsels  prevailed.    The  attempt  was 


350  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


made  iu  1880 ;  war  followed,  and  the  Basutos  gave  the 
colonial  troops  so  much  trouble  that  in  1883  the  Colony 
proposed  to  abandon  the  territory  altogether.  Ultimately, 
in  1884,  the  Imperial  Government  took  it  over,  and  has 
ever  since  administered  it  by  a  resident  commissioner. 

The  Basuto  nation,  which  had  been  brought  very  low 
at  the  time  when  Moshesh  threw  himself  upon  the  Brit- 
ish government  for  protection,  has  latterly  grown  rap- 
idly, and  now  numbers  over  220,000  souls.  This  increase 
is  partly  due  to  an  influx  of  Kafirs  from  other  tribes, 
each  chief  encouraging  the  influx,  since  the  new  retainers 
who  surround  him  increase  his  importance.  But  it  has 
now  reached  a  point  when  it  ought  to  be  stopped,  because 
all  the  agricultural  land  is  taken  up  for  tillage,  and  the 
pastures  begin  scarcely  to  suffice  for  the  cattle.  The  area 
is  10,263  square  miles,  about  two  thirds  that  of  Switzer- 
land, but  by  far  the  larger  part  of  it  is  wild  mountain. 
No  Europeans  are  allowed  to  hold  land,  and  a  license  is 
needed  even  for  the  keeping  of  a  store.  Neither  are  any 
mines  worked.  European  prospectors  are  not  even  al- 
lowed to  come  in  and  search  for  minerals,  for  the  policy 
of  the  authorities  has  been  to  keep  the  country  for  the 
natives;  and  nothing  alarms  the  chiefs  so  much  as  the 
occasional  appearance  of  these  speculative  gentry,  who,  if 
allowed  a  foothold,  would  soon  dispossess  them.  Thus  it 
remains  doubtful  whether  either  gold  or  sUver  or  dia- 
monds exist  in  "payable"  quantities. 

The  natives,  however,  go  in  large  numbers  —  in  1895-96 
as  many  as  28,000  went  out  —  to  work  in  the  mines  at 
Kimberley  and  on  the  Witwatersrand,  and  bring  back 
savings,  which  have  done  much  to  increase  the  prosperity 
of  the  tribe.  At  present  thej^  seem  fairly  contented  and 
peaceable.    The  land  belongs  to  the  nation,  and  aU  may 


BASUTOLAND 


351 


freely  turn  their  cattle  ou  the  untilled  parts.  Fields, 
however,  are  allotted  to  each  householder  by  the  chief,  to 
be  tilled,  and  the  tenant,  protected  by  public  opinion, 
retains  them  so  long  as  he  tills  them.  He  cannot  sell 
them,  but  they  will  pass  to  his  children.  Ordinary 
administration,  which  consists  mainly  in  the  allotment 
and  management  of  land,  is  left  to  the  chief;  as  also 
ordinary  jurisdiction,  both  civil  and  criminal.  The 
present  tendency  is  for  the  disposing  power  of  the  chief 
over  the  land  to  increase;  and  it  is  possible  that  Brit- 
ish law  may  ultimately  turn  him,  as  it  turned  the  head 
of  an  Irish  sept,  into  an  owner.  The  chief  holds  his 
court  at  his  kraal,  in  the  open  air,  settles  disputes 
and  awards  punishments.  There  are  several  British 
magistrates  to  deal  with  grave  offenses,  and  a  force  of 
220  native  police,  under  British  oflBcers.  Lerothodi,  as 
the  successor  of  Moshesh,  is  Paramount  Chief  of  the  na- 
tion; and  all  the  greater  chieftainships  under  him  are 
held  by  his  uncles  and  cousins, —  sons  and  grandsons  of 
the  founder  of  the  dynasty, — while  there  are  also  a  few 
chiefs  of  the  second  rank  belonging  to  other  families. 
Some  of  the  uncles,  especially  Masupha,  who  lives  at  the 
foot  of  Thaba  Bosiyo,  and  is  an  obstinately  conservative 
heathen,  give  trouble  both  to  Lerothodi  and  to  the  British 
commissioner,  their  quarrels  turning  mainly  on  questions 
of  land  and  frontier.  But  on  the  whole,  things  go  on  as 
well  asj  can  be  expected  in  such  a  world  as  the  present ; 
disturbances  tend  to  diminish;  and  the  horses  or  cattle 
that  are  occasionally  stolen  from  the  Free  State  farmers 
are  always  recovered  for  their  owners,  unless  they  have 
been  got  away  out  of  Basutoland  into  the  colonial  terri- 
tories to  the  south  and  west.  As  far  back  as  1855,  Mo- 
shesh forbade  the  "  smelling  out "  of  witches,  and  now  the 


362 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


British  authorities  have  suppressed  the  more  noxious  or 
offensive  kinds  of  ceremonies  practised  by  the  Kafirs. 
Otherwise  they  interfere  as  little  as  may  be  with  native 
ways,  trusting  to  time,  peace,  and  the  missionaries  to  se- 
cure the  gradual  civilization  of  the  people.  Once  a  year 
the  commissioner  meets  the  whole  people,  in  their  na- 
tional assembly  called  the  Pitso, —  the  name  is  derived 
from  their  verb  "  to  call,"  —  which  in  several  points  re- 
calls the  agora,  or  assembly  of  freemen  described  in  the 
Homeric  poems.  The  Paramount  Chief  presides,  and  de- 
bate is  mainly  conducted  by  the  chiefs ;  but  all  freemen, 
gentle  and  simple,  have  a  right  to  speak  in  it.  There  is 
no  voting,  only  a  declaration,  by  shouts,  of  the  general 
feeling.  Though  the  Paramount  Chief  has  been  usually 
the  person  who  convokes  it,  a  magnate  lower  in  rank 
might  always,  like  Achilles  in  the  Iliad,  have  it  sum- 
moned when  a  fitting  occasion  arose.  And  it  was  gen- 
erally preceded  by  a  consultation  among  the  leading  men, 
though  I  could  not  discover  that  there  was  any  regular 
council  of  chiefs.  In  all  these  points  the  resemblance  to 
the  primary  assembhes  of  the  early  peoples  of  Europe  is 
close  enough  to  add  another  to  the  arguments,  already 
strong,  which  discredit  the  theory  that  there  is  any  such 
thing  as  an  "Aryan  type"  of  institutions,  and  which 
suggest  the  view  that  in  studying  the  polities  of  primitive 
nations  we  must  not  take  affinities  of  language  as  the 
basis  of  a  classification. 

To-day  the  Pitso  has  lost  much  of  its  old  importance, 
and  tends  to  become  a  formal  meeting,  in  which  the 
British  commissioner  causes  new  regulations  to  be  read 
aloud,  inviting  discussion  on  points  which  any  one  pre- 
sent may  desii'e  to  raise,  and  addresses  the  people,  award- 
ing praise  or  blame,  and  adding  such  exhortations  as 


BASUTOLAND 


353 


he  thinks  seasonable.  The  missionaries  and  the  chief 
British  officials  are  usually  present.  I  read  through  the 
shorthand  report  of  the  great  Pitso  held  in  1879,  at  which 
the  question  of  disarmament  was  brought  forward  by 
the  Cape  Prime  Minister,  and  was  struck  by  the  freedom 
and  intelligence  with  which  the  speakers  delivered  their 
views.  One  observed:  "This  is  our  parliament,  though  it 
is  a  very  disorderly  parUament,  because  we  are  all  mixed 
up,  young  and  old;  and  we  cannot  accept  any  measure 
without  discussion."  Another  commented  severely  upon 
an  unhappy  phrase  that  had  been  used  at  Cape  Town 
by  a  member  of  the  Cape  government :  "  Mr.  U.  said 
the  Basutos  were  the  natural  enemies  of  the  white  man, 
because  we  were  black.  Is  that  language  which  should 
be  used  by  a  high  officer  of  the  government  ?  Let  senti- 
ments like  these  pass  away — we  are  being  educated  to  be- 
lieve that  all  people  are  equal,  and  feel  that  sentiments 
like  these  are  utterly  wrong."  A  third  claimed  that  the 
people  must  keep  their  guns,  because  "  at  our  circumcision 
we  were  given  a  shield  and  an  assagai,  and  told  never  to 
part  with  them;  and  that  if  ever  we  came  back  from  an 
expedition  and  our  shield  and  assagai  were  not  found  be- 
fore our  house,  we  should  die  the  death."  And  a  fourth, 
wishing  to  excuse  any  vehement  expression  he  might  use, 
observed :  "  We  have  a  proverb  which  says  that  a  man 
who  makes  a  mistake  in  a  public  assembly  cannot  be 
killed."  In  this  proverb  there  is  the  germ  of  the  English 
"  privilege  of  Parhament."  It  is  easy  to  gather  from  the 
whole  proceedings  of  these  Pitsos  how  much  more  popu- 
lar government  has  been  among  the  Basutos  than  it  was 
among  the  Zulus  or  Matabili.  Tshaka  or  Lo  Bengula 
would  in  a  moment  have  had  the  neck  twisted  of  any 
one  who  ventured  to  differ  publicly  from  his  opinion. 

23 


354 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


In  this  respect  the  Basutos  resemble  their  kinsfolk  the 
Bamangwato,  among  whom  Khama  rules  as  a  chief 
amenable  to  public  opinion,  -which,  in  that  instance,  is 
unfortunately  far  behind  the  enlightened  pm-poses  of  the 
sovereign. 

Nowhere  has  the  gospel  made  such  progress  among 
the  Kafirs  as  in  Basutolaud.  The  missionaries, —  French 
Protestant,  Roman  Catholic,  and  English  Episcopalian, — 
working  not  only  independently  but  on  very  different 
lines,  have  brought  nearly  fifty  thousand  natives  under 
Christian  influences,  as  members  or  adherents.  Not  aU 
of  these  are  baptized  converts — the  Franco-Scottish  mis- 
sionaries, by  whom  far  the  largest  part  of  the  work  has 
been  done,  tell  me  that  baptisms  do  not  increase  fast ;  and 
they  are  wise  in  not  measuring  the  worth  of  their  work 
by  the  number  of  baptisms.  Education  is  spreading.  At 
the  last  public  examinations  at  the  Cape,  the  French  Pro- 
testant missionaries  sent  up  twenty  Basuto  boys,  of  whom 
ten  passed  in  honors,  and  ten  in  high  classes,  the  stan- 
dard being  the  same  for  whites  and  blacks.  There  are 
now  one  hundred  and  fifty  schools  in  the  country,  all  but 
two  of  which  are  conducted  by  the  missionaries. 

Strange  waves  of  sentiment  pass  over  the  people,  at 
one  time  carrying  them  back  to  paganism,  at  another  in- 
clining them  to  Christianity  —  the  first  sign  of  the  latter 
tendency  being  discernible  in  an  increase  of  attendance 
at  the  mission  schools.  The  women  are  more  backward 
than  the  men,  because  they  have  been  kept  in  subjection, 
and  their  intelligence  has  remained  only  half  developed. 
But  their  condition  is  improving;  men  now  work  with 
them  in  the  fields,  and  they  demand  clothes  instead  of  so 
much  oil,  wherewith  to  smear  their  bodies.  As  education 
becomes  more  diffused,  old  heathen  customs  lose  their 


BASUTOLAND 


355 


hold,  and  will  probably  in  thirty  years  have  disappeared. 
The  belief  in  ghosts  and  magic  is,  of  course,  still  strong. 
On  the  top  of  Thaba  Bosiyo  we  were  shown  the  graves 
of  Moshesh  and  several  of  his  brothers  and  sons,  marked 
by  rude  stones,  with  the  name  of  each  chief  on  his  stone. 
But  we  were  told  that  in  reality  the  bodies  of  Moshesh 
and  of  several  of  the  others  are  not  here  at  all,  having 
been  dug  up  and  reinterred  more  than  a  mile  away  near 
the  foot  of  the  hill.  Were  the  body  under  the  stone,  the 
ghost,  which  usually  dwells  near  the  body,  would  be  lia- 
ble to  be  called  up  by  necromancers,  and  might  be  com- 
pelled to  work  mischief  to  the  tribe — mischief  which 
would  be  serious  in  proportion  to  the  power  the  spirit 
possessed  while  alive.  Considering,  however,  that  nearly 
all  the  ancient  world  held  similar  beliefs,  and  that  a  large 
part  of  the  modern  world,  even  in  Europe,  still  clings  to 
them,  the  persistence  of  these  interesting  superstitions 
need  excite  no  surprise,  nor  are  they  productive  of  much 
practical  ill,  now  that  the  witch-doctor  is  no  longer  per- 
mitted to  denounce  men  to  death. 

The  material  progress  of  the  people  has  been  aided  by 
the  enactment  of  stringent  laws  against  the  sale  of  white 
men's  intoxicating  liquors,  though  some  of  the  chiefs 
show  but  a  poor  example  of  obedience  to  these  laws, 
the  enforcement  of  which  is  rendered  difficult  by  the  illicit 
sale  which  goes  on  along  the  frontiers  where  Basutoland 
touches  the  Free  State  and  the  eastern  part  of  Cape  Col- 
ony. The  old  native  arts  and  industries  decline  as  Euro- 
pean goods  become  cheaper,  and  industrial  training  has 
now  become  one  of  the  needs  of  the  people.  It  is  an  en- 
couraging sign  that,  under  the  auspices  of  Lerothodi,  a 
sum  of  £3184  sterling  ($16,000),  was  collected  from  the 
tribe  in  1895-96,  for  the  foundation  of  an  institution  to 


356  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  APRICA 


give  such  training.  The  receipts  from  import  duties 
have  so  much  increased  that  the  contribution  of  £18,000 
paid  by  Cape  Colony  is  now  annually  reduced  by  nearly 
£12,000,  and  the  hut  tax,  of  ten  shillings  per  hut,  now 
easily  and  promptly  collected,  amounts  to  £23,000  a  year, 
leaving  a  surplus,  out  of  which  £1300  is  paid  to  the  Cape. 
Basutoland  is  within  the  South  African  Customs  Union. 

These  facts  are  encouraging.  They  show  that,  so  f ai',  the 
experiment  of  leaving  a  native  race  to  advance  in  their 
own  way,  under  their  own  chiefs,  but  carefully  supervised 
by  imperial  officers,  has  proved  successful.  A  warlike,  un- 
stable, and  turbulent,  although  intelligent  people,  while 
increasing  fast  in  wealth  and  material  comfort,  has  also  be- 
come more  peaceful  and  orderly,  and  by  the  abandonment 
of  its  more  repulsive  customs  is  passing  from  savagery 
to  a  state  of  semi-civilization.  Still  the  situation  has  its 
anxieties.  The  very  prosperity  of  the  country  has  di'awn 
into  it  a  larger  population  than  the  arable  and  pastoral 
land  may  prove  able  to  support.  The  Free  State  people 
are  not  friendly  to  it,  and  many  pohticians  in  Cape  Col- 
ony would  like  to  recover  it  for  the  Colony,  while  many 
white  adventurers  would  like  to  prospect  for  mines,  or  to 
oust  the  natives  from  the  best  lands.  The  natives  them- 
selves axe  armed,  and  being  liable,  like  all  natives,  to  sud- 
den fits  of  unreason,  may  conceivably  be  led  into  disorders 
which  would  involve  a  war  and  the  regular  conquest  of 
the  country.  The  fii-mness  as  well  as  the  conciliatory  tact- 
fulness  which  the  first  commissioner,  Sir  Marshal  Clarke, 
and  his  successor,  the  present  Acting  Commissioner,  have 
shown,  has  hitherto  averted  these  dangers,  and  has  in- 
spired the  people  with  a  belief  in  the  good  will  of  the 
government.  If  the  progress  of  recent  years  can  be 
maintained  for  thirty  years  moi-e,  the  risk  of  trouble 


BASUTOLAND 


357 


win  have  almost  disappeared,  for  by  that  time  a  new- 
generation,  unused  to  war,  will  have  grown  up.  Who- 
ever feels  for  the  native  and  cares  for  his  future  must 
wish  a  fair  chance  for  the  experiment  that  is  now  being 
tried  in  Basutoland,  of  letting  him  develop  in  his  own 
way,  shielded  from  the  rude  pressure  of  the  whites. 


23* 


CHAPTER  XXI 


BLACKS  AND  WHITES 

EVERYWHERE  in  South  Africa,  except  in  tlie  Wit- 
watersrand  and  Cape  Town,  the  black  people  greatly 
outnumber  the  whites.  In  the  Orange  Free  State  they 
are  nearly  twice  as  numerous,  in  Cape  Colony  and  the 
Transvaal  more  than  thrice  as  numerous,  in  Natal  ten 
times  as  numerous,  while  in  the  other  territories,  British, 
German,  and  Portuguese,  the  disproportion  is  very  much 
greater,  possibly  some  four  or  five  millions  of  natives 
against  nine  or  ten  thousand  Europeans.  The  total  num- 
ber of  whites  south  of  the  Zambesi  hardly  reaches  750,000,  I 
while  that  of  the  blacks  is  roughly  computed  at  from  seven 
to  eight  millions.  At  present,  therefore,  so  far  as  numbers 
go,  the  country  is  a  black  man's  country. 

It  may  be  thought  that  this  preponderance  of  the  na- 
tives is  only  natural  in  a  region  by  far  the  larger  part  of 
which  has  been  very  recently  occupied  by  Europeans,  and 
that  in  time  immigration  and  the  natural  growth  of  the 
white  element  will  reduce  the  disproportion.  This  expla- 
nation, however,  does  not  meet  the  facts.  The  black  race 
is  at  present  increasing  at  least  as  rapidly  as  the  white. 
Unlike  those  true  aborigines  of  the  country,  the  Hotten- 
tots and  Bushmen,  who  withered  up  and  vanished  away 

358 


BLACKS  AND  WHITES 


359 


before  the  whites,  the  Kafirs  themselves,  apparently  in- 
truders from  the  North,  have  held  their  ground,  not  only 
in  the  wilder  country  where  they  have  been  unaffected 
by  the  European,  but  in  the  regions  where  he  has  con- 
quered and  ruled  over  them.  They  are  more  prolific  than 
the  whites,  and  their  increase  is  not  restrained  by  those 
prudential  checks  which  teU  upon  civilized  man,  because, 
wants  being  few,  subsistence  in  a  warm  climate  with  abun- 
dance of  land  is  easy.  Formerly  two  powerful  forces  kept 
down  population :  war,  in  which  no  quarter  was  given  and 
aU  the  property  of  the  vanquished  was  captured  or  de- 
stroyed; and  the  murders  that  went  steadily  on  at  the 
pleasure  of  the  chief,  and  usually  through  the  agency  of 
the  witch-doctor.  Now  both  these  forces  have  been  re- 
moved by  the  action  of  European  government,  which 
has  stopped  war  and  restrains  the  caprice  of  the  chiefs. 
Relieved  from  these  checks,  the  Kafli's  of  the  south  coast 
and  of  Basutoland,  the  regions  in  which  it  has  been  easi- 
est to  observe,  are  multiplying  faster  than  the  whites,  and 
there  is  no  reason  why  the  same  thing  should  not  happen 
in  other  parts  of  the  country.  The  number  of  the  Fin- 
goes,  for  instance  (though  they  are  no  doubt  an  exception- 
ally thrifty  and  thriving  tribe),  is  to-day  ten  times  as 
great  as  it  was  fifty  or  sixty  years  ago.  Here  is  a  fact  of 
serious  import  for  the  future.  Two  races,  far  removed 
from  one  another  in  civilization  and  mental  condition, 
dwell  side  by  side.  Neither  race  wUl  extrude  or  absorb 
the  other.  What  then  will  be  their  relations,  and  how  will 
the  difficulties  be  met  to  which  their  juxtaposition  must 
give  rise? 

The  colonies  of  Britain  over  the  world  fall  into  two 
groups :  those  which  have  received  the  gift  of  self-govern- 
ment, and  those  which  are  governed  from  home  through 


I 


360  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 

executive  officials  placed  over  each  of  them.  Those  of  the 
latter  class,  called  Crown  Colonies,  are  aU  (with  the  insig- 
nificant exception  of  the  Falkland  Islands)  within  the  trop- 
ics, and  are  all  peopled  chiefly  by  colored  races,— negroes, 
Indians,  Malays,  Polynesians,  or  Chinese,— with  a  smaU 
minority  of  whites.  The  self-governing  colonies,  on  the 
other  hand,  are  all  situated  in  the  temperate  zone,  and  are 
all,  with  one  exception,  peopled  chiefly  by  Europeans.  It 
is  because  they  have  a  European  population  that  they  have 
been  deemed  fit  to  govern  themselves,  just  as  it  is  because 
the  tropical  colonies  have  a  predominantly  colored  popu- 
lation that  the  supremacy  of  the  Colonial  Office  and  its 
local  representatives  is  acquiesced  in  as  fit  and  proper. 
Every  one  perceives  that  representative  assemblies  based 
on  a  democratic  franchise,  which  are  capable  of  govern- 
ing Canada  or  Australia,  would  not  succeed  in  the  West 
Indies  or  Ceylon  or  Fiji. 

The  one  exception  to  this  broad  di\ision,  the  one  case 
of  self-governing  communities  in  which  the  majority  of 
the  inhabitants  are  not  of  European  stock,  is  to  be  found 
in  South  Africa.  The  general  difficulty  of  adjusting  the 
relations  of  a  higher  and  a  lower  race,  which  is  serious  in 
all  its  aspects  and  under  every  kind  of  government,  here 
presents  itself  in  the  special  form  of  the  construction  of  a 
government  which,  while  democratic  as  regards  one  of  the 
races,  cannot  safely  be  made  democratic  as  regards  the 
other.  This  difficulty,  though  new  in  the  British  empit-e, 
is  not  new  in  the  United  States  of  America,  which  has 
been  struggling  with  it  for  years ;  and  it  is  instructive  to 
compare  the  experience  of  South  Africa  with  that  through 
which  the  Southern  States  have  passed  since  the  War  of 
Secession. 

Throughout  South  Africa— and  for  this  purpose  no  dis- 


BLACKS  AND  WHITES 


361 


tinction  need  be  drawn  between  the  two  Britisb  colonies 
and  the  two  Boer  republics— the  people  of  color  may  be 
di\dded  into  two  classes :  the  wild  or  tribal  natives,  who 
are,  of  course,  by  far  the  more  numerous,  and  the  tame 
or  domesticated  natives,  among  whom  one  may  include, 
though  they  are  not  aborigines,  but  recent  incomers,  the 
Indians  of  Natal  and  the  Transvaal,  as  well  as  the  com- 
paratively few  Malays  of  the  Cape.  Of  these  non-tribal 
natives,  some  tiU  the  land  for  themselves,  whUe  others 
act  as  herdsmen  or  laborers  for  white  farmers,  or  as  work- 
men in  various  trades  for  white  employers.  These  natives 
are  now  civilized  in  most  of  their  habits,  are  accustomed 
to  wear  clothes,  speak  mostly  Dutch  or  English,  and  to  a 
large  extent  profess  Christianity. 

It  will  be  convenient  to  deal  with  the  two  classes  sepa- 
rately, and  to  begin  with  the  semi-civilized  or  non-tribal 
natives,  who  have  been  for  the  longest  period  under  white 
influences,  and  whose  present  relations  with  the  whites 
indicate  what  the  relations  of  the  races  are  likely  to  be,  for 
some  time  to  come,  in  all  parts  of  the  country. 

The  non-tribal  people  of  color  live  in  the  Cape  Colony, 
except  the  southeastern  parts  (called  Pondoland  and 
Tembuland),  in  Natal,  in  the  Orange  Free  State,  and 
in  the  southern  parts  of  the  Transvaal.  They  consist 
of  three  stocks :  (1)  the  so-caUed  Cape  boys,  a  mixed 
race  formed  by  the  intermarriage  of  Hottentots  and  Ma- 
lays with  the  negro  slaves  brought  in  early  days  from  the 
west  coast,  plus  some  small  infusion  of  Dutch  blood ;  (2) 
the  Kafirs  no  longer  in  communities  under  their  chiefs; 
and  (3)  the  Indian  immigrants  who  (together  with  a  few 
Chinese)  have  recently  come  into  Natal  and  the  Transvaal, 
and  number  about  60,000,  not  counting  in  the  indentured 
coolies  who  are  to  be  sent  back  to  India.    There  are  no 


362 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


data  for  conjecturing  the  niunber  of  Cape  boys  and  domes- 
ticated Kafirs,  but  it  can  hardly  exceed  400,000. 

These  colored  people  form  the  substratum  of  society 
in  all  the  four  states  above  mentioned.  They  do  the 
harder  and  rougher  kinds  of  labor,  especially  of  outdoor 
labor.  Let  me  remind  the  reader  of  what  has  been  inci-' 
dentally  observed  before,  and  must  now  be  insisted  on  as 
being  the  capital  feature  of  South  African  life— the  fact 
that  all  unskilled  work  is  done  by  black  people.  In  many 
parts  of  the  country  the  climate  is  not  too  hot  for  men 
belonging  to  the  north  European  races  to  work  in  the 
fields,  for  the  sim's  rays  are  generally  tempered  by  a 
breeze,  the  nights  are  cool,  and  the  dry  air  is  invigorat- 
ing. Had  South  Africa,  like  California  or  New  South 
Wales,  been  colonized  solely  by  white  men,  it  would 
probably,  like  those  countries,  have  to-day  a  white  labor- 
ing population.  But,  unluckily.  South  Africa  was  colo- 
nized in  the  seventeenth  century,  when  the  importation  of 
negro  slaves  was  deemed  the  easiest  means  of  securing 
cheap  and  abundant  labor.  From  1658  onward  till,  in 
1834,  slavery  was  abolished  by  the  British  Parliament,  it 
was  to  slaves  that  the  hardest  and  humblest  kinds  of 
work  were  allotted.  The  white  people  lost  the  habit  of 
performing  manual  toil,  and  acquired  the  habit  of  despising 
it.  No  one  wovild  do  for  himself  what  he  coiild  get  a  black 
man  to  do  for  him.  New  settlers  from  Europe  feU  into 
the  ways  of  the  countrj',  which  suited  their  disinclination 
for  physical  exertion  under  a  sun  hotter  than  their  own. 
Thus,  when  at  last  slavery  was  abohshed,  the  custom  of 
leaving  menial  or  toilsome  work  to  people  of  color  con- 
tinued as  strong  as  ever.  It  is  as  strong  as  ever  to-day. 
The  only  considerable  exception,  that  which  was  furnished 
by  the  German  colonists  who  were  planted  in  the  eastern 


BLACKS  AND  WHITES 


363 


province  after  the  Crimean  War  of  1854,  has  ceased  to  be 
an  exception ;  for  the  children  of  those  colonists  have  now, 
for  the  most  part,  sold  or  leased  their  allotments  to  Kafirs, 
who  till  the  soil  less  efiSciently  than  the  sturdy  old  Ger- 
mans did.  The  artizans  who  come  from  Eui-ope  now  adopt 
the  habits  of  the  country  in  a  few  weeks  or  months.  The 
English  carpenter  hires  a  native  "boy"  to  carry  his  bag 
of  tools  for  him ;  the  English  bricklayer  has  a  native  hod- 
man to  hand  the  bricks  to  him,  which  he  proceeds  to  set ; 
the  Cornish  or  Australian  miner  directs  the  excavation  of 
the  seam  and  fixes  the  fuse  which  explodes  the  dynamite, 
but  the  work  with  the  pickax  is  done  by  the  Kafir.  The 
herdsmen  who  drive  the  cattle  or  tend  the  sheep  are 
Kafirs,  acting  under  the  orders  of  a  white.  Thus  the 
colored  man  is  indispensable  to  the  white  man,  and  is 
brought  into  constant  relations  with  him.  He  is  a  neces- 
sary part  of  the  economic  machinery  of  the  country, 
whether  for  mining  or  for  maniif aeture,  for  tillage  or  for 
ranching. 

But  though  the  black  people  form  the  lowest  stratum  of 
society,  they  are  not  all  in  a  position  of  personal  depen- 
dence. A  good  many  Kafirs,  especially  in  the  eastern  prov- 
ince, own  the  small  farms  which  they  till,  and  many  others 
are  tenants,  rendering  to  their  landlord,  like  the  metayers 
of  France,  a  haK  of  the  produce  by  way  of  rent.  Some 
few  natives,  especially  near  Cape  Town,  are  even  rich,  and 
among  the  Indians  of  Natal  a  good  many  have  thriven  as 
shopkeepers.  There  is  no  reason  to  think  that  their  pres- 
ent exclusion  from  trades  reqiiiring  skill  will  continue. 
In  1895  there  were  Kafirs  earning  from  five  shillings  to 
seven  shillings  and  sixpence  a  day  as  riveters  on  an  iron 
bridge  then  in  course  of  construction.  I  was  informed  by 
a  high  railway  official  that  many  of  them  were  quite  fit  to 


364 


mPEESSIOXS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


be  drivers  or  stokers  of  locomotives,  though  white  senti- 
ment (which  tolerates  them  as  navvies  or  plate-layers) 
made  it  inexpedient  to  place  them  in  such  positions. 
Many  work  as  servants  in  stores,  and  are,  one  hears,  not 
more  prone  to  petty  thefts  than  Europeans  are.  The  steal- 
ing of  stock  from  farms  has  gi-eatly  diminished.  They 
have  di'opped  their  old  usages  and  adopted  European 
habits,  have  lost  then*  tribal  attachments,  usually  speak 
Dutch,  or  even  perhaps  English,  and  to  a  considerable 
extent,  especially  in  the  western  pro\T.nce  and  in  the  towns, 
have  joined  Christian  congregations.  The  Indians  are, 
of  com'se,  Mohammedans  or  heathens,  the  Malays  (of 
whom  there  are  only  about  13,000),  Mohammedans.  They 
travel  a  good  deal  by  rail,  and  are,  especially  the  Kafirs, 
eager  for  instruction,  which  is  pro^dded  for  them  only  in 
the  mission  schools.  Some  will  come  from  great  distances 
to  get  taught,  and  those  who  can  write  are  very  fond  of 
corresponding  with  one  another.  Taken  as  a  whole,  they 
are  a  quiet  and  orderly  people,  not  given  to  crimes  of  vio- 
lence, and  less  given  (so  far  as  I  could  gather)  to  pilfering 
than  are  the  negroes  of  the  Southern  States  of  America. 
Assaults  upon  women,  such  as  are  frequent  in  those  States, 
and  have  recently  caused  a  hideous  epidemic  of  lynching, 
are  extremely  rare ;  indeed,  I  heard  of  none,  save  one  or 
two  in  Natal,  where  the  natives  are  comparatively  wild 
and  the  whites  scattered  thinly  among  them.  So  few 
Kafii's  have  yet  received  a  good  education,  or  tried  to  en- 
ter occupations  requiring  superior  intelligence,  that  it  is 
hardly  possible  to  speak  confidently  of  their  capacity  for 
the  professions  or  the  higher  kinds  of  commerce  ;  but  ju- 
dicious observers  think  they  will  in  time  show  capacity, 
and  tell  you  that  their  inferiority  to  white  men  Hes  less  in 
mere  intellectual  capacity  than  in  power  of  will  and  stead- 


BLACKS  AND  WHITES 


365 


iness  of  purpose.  They  are  unstable,  improvident,  easily 
discouraged,  easily  led  astray.  When  the  morahty  of  their 
old  life,  in  which  they  were  ruled  by  the  will  of  their  chief, 
the  opinion  of  their  fellows,  and  the  traditional  customs  of 
the  tribe,  has  been  withdrawn  from  them,  it  may  be  long 
before  any  new  set  of  principles  can  gain  a  like  hold  upon 
them. 

That  there  should  be  little  community  of  ideas,  and  by 
consequence  little  sympathy,  between  such  a  race  and  the 
whites  is  no  more  than  any  one  would  expect  who  else- 
where in  the  world  has  studied  the  phenomena  which 
mark  the  contact  of  dissimilar  peoples.  But  the  traveler 
in  South  Africa  is  astonished  at  the  strong  feeling  of  dis- 
like and  contempt— one  might  almost  say  of  hostility— 
which  the  bulk  of  the  whites  show  to  their  black  neigh- 
bors. He  asks  what  can  be  the  cause  of  it.  It  is  not  due, 
as  in  the  Southern  States  of  America  it  has  been  largely 
due,  to  poUtical  resentment,  for  there  has  been  no  sud- 
den gift  to  former  slaves  of  power  over  former  masters. 
Neither  is  it  sufficiently  explained  by  the  long  conflicts 
with  the  south-coast  Kafii's ;  for  the  respect  felt  for  their 
bravery  has  tended  to  efface  the  recollection  of  their  cru- 
elties. Neither  is  it  caused  (except  as  respects  the  petty 
Indian  traders)  by  the  dislike  of  the  poorer  whites  to  the 
competition  with  them  in  industry  of  a  class  living  in  a 
much  ruder  way  and  willing  to  accept  much  lower  wages. 
It  seems  to  spring  partly  from  the  old  feeling  of  contempt 
for  the  slaves,  a  feeling  which  has  descended  to  a  genera- 
tion that  has  never  seen  slavery  as  an  actual  system ;  partly 
from  physical  aversion ;  partly  from  an  incompatibility  of 
character  and  temper,  which  makes  the  faults  of  the  colored 
man  more  offensive  to  the  white  than  the  (perhaps  morally 
as  grave)  faults  of  members  of  his  own  white  stock.  Even 


366 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


between  civilized  peoples,  such  as  Germans  and  Russians, 
Spaniards  and  Frenclimen,  there  is  a  disposition  to  be  un- 
duly annoyed  by  traits  and  habits  which  are  not  so  much 
culpable  in  themselves  as  distasteful  to  men  constructed 
on  different  lines.  This  sense  of  annoyance  is  naturally 
more  intense  toward  a  race  so  widely  removed  from  the 
modern  European  as  the  Kafirs  are.  Whoever  has  traveled 
among  people  of  a  race  greatly  weaker  than  his  own  must 
have  sometimes  been  conscious  of  a  kind  of  impatience 
which  arises  when  the  native  either  fails  to  understand  or 
neglects  to  obey  the  command  given.  The  sense  of  his 
superior  intelligence  and  energy  of  will  produces  in  the 
European  a  sort  of  tyi*annous  spiiit,  which  wiU  not  conde- 
scend to  argue  with  the  native,  but  overbears  him  by  sheer 
force,  and  is  prone  to  resort  to  physical  coercion.  Even 
just  men,  who  in  theory  have  the  deepest  respect  for  hu- 
man rights,  are  apt  to  be  carried  away  by  this  conscious- 
ness of  superior  strength,  and  to  become  despotic,  if  not 
harsh.  And  the  tendency  to  race  enmity  seems  to  lie  very 
deep  in  human  nature.  Perhaps  it  is  a  sur\dval  from  the 
times  when  each  race  could  maintain  itself  only  by  slaugh- 
tering its  rivals. 

The  attitude  of  contempt  I  have  mentioned  may  be 
noted  in  all  classes,  though  it  is  strongest  in  those  rough 
and  thoughtless  whites  who  pliune  themselves  all  the  more 
upon  their  color  because  they  have  little  else  to  plume 
themselves  upon,  wliile  among  the  more  refined  it  is  re- 
strained by  self-respect  and  by  the  sense  that  allowances 
must  be  made  for  a  backward  race.  It  is  stronger  among 
the  Dutch  than  among  the  English,  partly,  perhaps,  be- 
cause the  EugHsh  wish  to  be  unlike  the  Dutch  in  this  as 
in  many  other  respects.  Yet  one  often  hears  that  the 
Dutch  get  on  better  with  their  black  servants  than  the 


BLACKS  AND  WHITES 


367 


English  do,  because  they  understand  native  character  bet- 
ter, and  are  more  familiar  in  their  manners,  the  English- 
man retaining  his  national  stiffness.  The  laws  of  the 
Boer  republics  are  far  more  harsh  than  those  of  the  Eng- 
lish colonies,  and  the  Transvaal  Boers  have  been  alwaj's 
severe  and  cruel  in  their  dealings  with  the  natives.  But 
the  Enghsh  also  have  done  so  many  things  to  regret  that  it 
does  not  lie  with  them  to  cast  stones  at  the  Boers,  and  the 
mildness  of  colonial  law  is  largely  due  to  the  influence  of 
the  home  government,  and  to  that  recognition  of  the  equal 
civil  rights  of  all  subjects  which  has  long  pervaded  the  law 
of  England.  Only  two  sets  of  Europeans  are  free  from 
reproach :  the  imperial  ofllcials,  who  have  almost  always 
sought  to  protect  the  natives,  and  the  clergy,  both  Protes- 
tant and  Koman  CathoUc,  who  have  been  the  truest  and 
most  constant  friends  of  the  Hottentot  and  the  Kafir, 
sometimes  even  carrying  their  zeal  beyond  what  discretion 
could  approve. 

Deep  and  wide-spread  as  is  the  sentiment  of  aversion  to 
the  colored  people  which  I  am  describing,  it  must  not  be 
supposed  that  they  are  generally  iU-treated.  There  is  in- 
deed a  complete  social  separation.  Intermarriage,  though 
permitted  by  law  in  the  British  colonies,  is  extremely  rare, 
and  illicit  unions  are  uncommon.  Sometimes  the  usual  re- 
lations of  employer  and  employed  are  reversed,  and  a  white 
man  enters  the  service  of  a  prosperous  Kafir.  This  makes 
no  difference  as  respects  their  social  intercourse,  and  I  re- 
member to  have  been  told  of  a  case  in  which  the  white  work- 
man stipulated  that  his  employer  should  address  him  as 
"  boss."  Black  children  are  very  seldom  admitted  to  schools 
used  by  white  children ;  indeed,  I  doubt  if  the  two  colors  are 
ever  to  be  seen  on  the  same  benches,  except  at  Lovedale 
and  in  one  or  two  of  the  mission  schools  in  Cape  Town,  to 


368  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


wMch,  as  having  very  low  fees,  some  of  the  poorest  whites 
send  their  children.  I  heard  of  a  wealthy  colored  man  at 
the  Paarl,  a  Dutch  town  north  of  Cape  Town,  who  com- 
plained that,  though  he  paid  a  considerable  sum  in  taxes, 
he  was  not  permitted  to  send  his  daughter  to  any  of  the 
schools  in  the  place.  In  the  Protestant  Episcopal,  Pres- 
byterian, Congregationalist,  and  Methodist  churches,  and 
of  course  among  the  Roman  Catholics,  blacks  are  admitted 
along  with  whites  to  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper ; 
but  this  (so  I  was  told)  is  not  the  case  in  the  Dutch  Re- 
formed Church.  A  prominent  and  thoughtful  ecclesiastic 
in  Natal  deplored  to  me  the  complete  want  of  sympathy 
on  the  part  of  the  white  congregations  with  the  black  ones 
worshiping  near  them.  It  rarely,  if  ever,  happens  that  a 
native,  whatever  his  standing  among  his  own  people,— for 
to  the  white  there  is  practically  no  difference  between  one 
black  and  another,— is  received  within  a  white  man's  house 
on  any  social  occasion ;  indeed,  he  would  seldom  be  per- 
mitted, save  as  a  servant,  to  enter  a  private  house,  but  would 
be  received  on  the  stoep  (veranda).  When  Khama,  the  most 
important  chief  now  left  south  of  the  Zambesi,  a  Christian 
and  a  man  of  high  personal  character,  was  in  England  ia 
1895,  and  was  entertained  at  lunch  by  the  Duke  of  West- 
minster and  other  persons  of  social  eminence,  the  news  of 
the  reception  given  him  excited  annoyance  and  disgust 
among  the  whites  in  South  Africa.  I  was  told  that  at  a 
garden-party  given  a  few  years  ago  by  the  wife  of  a 
white  bishop,  the  appearance  of  a  native  clergj'man  caused 
many  of  the  white  guests  to  withdraw  in  dudgeon.  Once 
when  myself  a  guest  at  a  mission  station  in  Basutoland  I 
was  asked  by  my  host  whether  I  had  any  objection  to  his 
inviting  to  the  family  meal  a  native  pastor  who  had  been 
preaching  to  the  native  congregation.    When  I  expressed 


BLACKS  AND  WHITES 


369 


surprise  at  the  question,  my  host  explained  that  race  feel- 
ing was  so  strong  among  the  colonists  that  it  would 
be  deemed  improper,  and  indeed  insulting,  to  make  a 
black  man  sit  down  at  the  same  table  with  a  white  guest, 
unless  the  express  permission  of  the  latter  had  first  been 
obtained.  But  apart  from  this  social  disparagement,  the 
native  does  not  suffer  much  actual  wrong.  Now  and  then, 
on  a  remote  farm,  the  employer  will  chastise  his  servant 
with  a  harshness  he  would  not  venture  to  apply  to  a  white 
man.  A  shocking  case  of  the  kind  occurred  a  few  years 
ago  in  the  eastern  province.  A  white  farmer— an  Eng- 
lishman, not  a  Boer— flogged  his  Kafir  servant  so  severely 
that  the  latter  died ;  and  when  the  criminal  was  put  on  his 
trial,  and  acqtdtted  by  a  white  jury,  his  white  neighbors 
escorted  him  home  with  a  band  of  music.  More  frequently, 
unscrupulous  employers,  especially  on  the  frontiers  of  civ- 
ilization, wiU  try  to  defraud  their  native  workmen,  or  wiU 
provoke  them  by  ill-usage  to  run  away  before  the  day  of 
payment  arrives.  But  there  are  no  lynchings,  as  in  Amer- 
ica, and  the  white  judges  and  magistrates,  if  not  always 
the  juries,  administer  the  law  with  perfect  impartiality. 

As  regards  the  provisions  of  the  law,  one  must  distin- 
guish between  the  British  colonies  and  the  Dutch  repub- 
lics. In  the  former  the  ordinary  civil  rights  of  white  and 
black  are  precisely  the  same,  though  there  exist  certain 
police  provisions  which  are  applicable  only  to  the  latter. 
Cape  Colony  has  a  so-called  "curfew  law,"  requiring  na- 
tives who  are  out  of  doors  after  dark  to  be  provided  with 
a  pass— a  law  which  is  found  oppressive  by  the  best  class 
of  natives,  educated  and  respectable  men,  though  defended 
as  necessary  for  pubHc  order,  having  regard  to  the  large 
black  population  of  the  lower  class,  and  their  propensity 
to  drink  and  petty  offenses.    There  are  also  certain  "  labor 

21 


370 


DIPKESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


laws,"  applying  to  the  natives  only,  and  particularly  to 
those  on  agricultural  locations,  which  are  intended,  to 
check  the  disposition  of  Kafirs  li\Tng  on  native  reserves 
to  become  idle  or  to  take  to  vagrancy.  There  is  no  doubt 
a  danger  that  people  who  have  never  acquired  habits  of 
steady  industry— for  the  tribal  Kafli*  leaves  to  his  wives 
the  cultivation  of  his  plot  of  maize  or  sorghum— may  re- 
lapse into  a  laziness  hurtful  to  their  own  progress,  seeing 
that  a  few  weeks'  labor  is  sufficient  to  provide  all  the 
food  needed  for  a  whole  year.  In  the  transition  from 
one  state  of  society  to  another  exceptional  legislation  is 
needed,  and  a  prima  facie  case  for  the  so-called  "  Glen 
Grey  Act "  and  similar  laws  may,  therefore,  be  made  out. 

The  friends  of  the  natives  whom  I  consulted  on  the 
subject,  and  one  or  two  of  the  most  educated  and  repre- 
sentative Kafirs  themselves,  did  not  seem  to  object  to  this 
act  in  principle,  though  they  criticized  its  methods  and 
many  of  its  details.  But  as  aU  such  laws  are  prompted 
not  only  by  regard  for  the  welfare  of  the  Kafir,  but  also 
by  the  desire  of  the  white  colonist  to  get  plenty  of  labor 
and  to  get  it  cheap,  they  are  obviously  open  to  abuse  and 
require  great  care  iu  their  admiaistration.  The  whole  sub- 
ject of  native  labor  and  native  land  tenui*e  is  an  intricate 
and  difficult  one,  which  I  have  not  space  to  discuss  here, 
though  I  obtained  a  good  deal  of  information  regarding  it. 
It  is  also  an  urgent  one,  for  the  population  which  occupies 
the  native  reserves  is  in  many  districts  growing  so  fast  that 
the  agricultural  laud  wiU  soon  cease  to  feed  them,  wMle 
the  pasture  is  suffering  from  being  overstocked.  Most  of 
my  informants  agreed  in  thinking  that  the  control  of  the 
British  magistrate  over  the  management  of  lands  in  reser- 
vations was  better  than  that  of  the  native  headman,  and 
ought  to  be  extended,  and  that  the  tenure  of  farms  by  in- 


BLACKS  AND  WHITES 


371 


dividual  natives  outside  the  reservations  ought  to  be  act- 
ively encouraged.  They  deemed  this  a  step  forward  in 
civilization ;  and  they  also  held  that  it  is  necessary  to  pre- 
vent native  allotments,  even  when  held  by  individuals, 
from  being  sold  to  white  men,  conceiving  that  without 
such  a  prohibition  the  whites  will  in  course  of  time  oust 
the  natives  from  aU  the  best  land. 

One  law  specially  applicable  to  natives  has  been  found 
most  valuable  in  Natal,  as  well  as  in  the  territories  of  the 
Chartered  Company,  and  ought  to  be  enacted  in  Cape 
Colony  also,  viz.,  an  absolute  prohibition  of  the  sale  to 
them  of  white  men's  spirits.  The  spirits  sold  to  them  are 
rough  and  fiery,  much  more  deleterious  than  European 
whisky  or  brandy  or  hoUands.  Unfortunately,  the  inter- 
ests of  the  wine-growers  and  distillers  in  the  Colony  have 
hitherto  proved  strong  enough  to  defeat  the  bills  intro- 
duced for  this  purpose  by  the  friends  of  the  natives. 
Though  some  people  maintain  that  the  Dutch  and  anti- 
native  party  resist  this  much-needed  measure  because  they 
desire  through  strong  drink  to  weaken  and  keep  down  the 
natives,  I  do  not  believe  in  the  existence  of  any  such 
diabolical  motive.  Self-interest,  or  rather  a  foolish  and 
short-sighted  view  of  self-interest,— for  in  the  long  run  the 
welfare  of  the  natives  is  also  the  welfare  of  the  whites,— 
sufficiently  accounts  for  their  conduct ;  but  it  is  a  slur  on 
the  generally  fair  and  liberal  character  of  colonial  legis- 
lation. 

In  the  two  Dutch  republics  the  English  principle  of 
equal  civil  rights  for  white  and  black  finds  no  place.  One 
of  the  motives  which  induced  the  Boers  of  1836  to  trek 
out  of  the  Colony  was  their  disgust  at  the  establishment 
of  such  equality  by  the  British  government.  The  Grond- 
wet  (fundamental  law)  of  the  Transvaal  Republic  declared, 


372 


BIPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


in  1858,  and  declares  to-day,  that  "  the  people  will  suffer  no 
equality  of  whites  and  blacks,  either  in  state  or  in  ehui-ch.'' 
Democratic  republics  are  not  necessarily  respectful  of  what 
used  to  be  called  human  rights,  and  neither  the  "  principles 
of  1789  "  nor  those  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  find 
recognition  among  the  Boers.  Both  in  the  Transvaal  and 
in  the  Orange  Free  State  a  native  is  forbidden  to  hold 
land,  and  is  not  permitted  to  travel  anywhere  without  a 
pass,  in  default  of  which  he  may  be  detained.  (In  the  Free 
State,  however,  the  sale  of  intoxicants  to  him  is  forbidden, 
and  a  somewhat  similar  law,  long  demanded  by  the  mine- 
owners,  has  very  recently  been  enacted  in  the  Transvaal.) 
Nor  can  a  native  serve  on  a  jury,  whereas  in  Cape  Colony 
he  is  legally  qualified,  and  sometimes  is  impaneled.  The 
whites  will  occasionally  object  to  his  presence,  but  a  large- 
minded  and  strong-minded  judge  manages  to  overcome 
theii"  reluctance.  For  a  good  while  after  they  settled  in 
the  Transvaal  the  Boers  had  a  system  of  apprenticing 
Kafir  children  which  was  with  difficulty  distinguishable 
from  predial  serfdom ;  and  though  they  have  constantly 
denied  that  they  sanctioned  either  the  kidnapping  of  chil- 
dren or  the  treatment  of  the  apprentices  as  slaves,  it  seems 
probable  that  in  some  parts  of  the  coimtry  these  abuses 
did  exist.  The  point,  however,  remains  controverted,  and 
it  seems  clear  that  no  such  practices  are  now  legal. 

PoHtical  rights,  have,  of  coui-se,  never  been  held  by  per- 
sons of  color  in  either  of  the  Dutch  republics,  nor  has  it 
ever  been  proposed  to  grant  them.  Boer  public  opinion 
would  scout  such  an  idea,  for  it  reproaches  the  people  of 
Cape  Colony  now  with  being  "  governed  by  black  men," 
because  the  electoral  franchise  is  there  enjoyed  by  a  few 
colored  men.  In  the  two  colonies  the  history  of  the  matter 
is  as  follows.  Wh.en  representative  government  was  estab- 


BLACKS  AND  WHITES 


373 


lished,  and  the  electoral  franchise  conferred  upon  the  col- 
onists in  1853,  no  color-line  was  drawn ;  and  from  that 
time  onward  a  few  black  people  have  voted,  though  of 
course  not  many  were  qualified  under  the  law  to  vote. 
Some  years  ago,  however,  the  whites,  and  the  Dutch  party 
in  particular,  became  uneasy  at  the  strength  of  the  colored 
element,  though  it  did  not  vote  solid,  had  no  colored  lead- 
ers, and  was  important  only  in  a  very  few  constituencies. 
Accordingly,  an  act  was  passed  in  1892,  establishing  a  com- 
bined educational  and  property  qualification— that  is  to 
say,  the  ownership  of  a  house  or  other  building  of  the 
value  of  £75  ($375)  or  upwards,  or  the  being  in  receipt  of 
a  salary  of  £50  ($250)  per  annum,  with  the  ability  to  sign 
one's  name  and  write  one's  address  and  occupation.  This 
act,  which  did  not  apply  to  those  already  registered  in  any 
particular  district  and  claiming  to  be  re-registered  therein, 
is  expected  to  keep  down  the  number  of  colored  voters; 
and  as  it  applies  to  whites  also,  there  is  no  inequality  of 
treatment.  Tribal  natives,  of  course,  never  had  the  fran- 
chise at  all.  Neither  the  natives— the  most  substantial 
and  best  educated  among  whom  possess  the  qualifications 
required— nor  their  friends  complain  of  this  law,  which 
may  be  defended  on  the  ground  that,  while  admitting 
those  people  of  color  whose  intelligence  fits  them  for  the 
exercise  of  political  power,  it  excludes  a  large  mass  whose 
ignorance  and  indifference  to  public  questions  would  make 
them  the  victims  of  rich  and  unscrupulous  candidates.  It 
is,  perhaps,  less  open  to  objection  than  some  of  the  at- 
tempts recently  made  in  the  Southern  States  of  America 
to  evade  the  provisions  of  the  amendments  to  the  federal 
Constitution  under  which  negroes  obtained  the  suffrage. 
In  Natal  nearly  all  the  Kafirs  live  under  native  law,  and 
have  thus  been  outside  the  representative  system ;  but  the 

24* 


374 


niPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


Governor  has  power  to  admit  a  Kafir  to  the  suffrage,  and 
this  has  been  done  in  a  few  instances.  As  stated  in  Chap- 
ter XVIII,  the  rapid  increase  of  Indian  immigrants  in  that 
colony  alarmed  the  whites,  and  led  to  the  passing,  in  1896, 
of  an  act  which  wiU  practically  debar  these  immigrants 
from  political  rights,  as  coming  from  a  country  in  which 
no  representative  institutions  exist.  Thus  Natal  also  has 
managed  to  exclude  colored  people  without  making  color 
the  nominal  ground  of  disability.  I  need  hardly  say  that 
whoever  has  the  suffrage  is  also  eligible  for  election  to 
the  legislature.  No  person  of  color  is  now,  however,  a 
member  of  either  chamber  in  either  colony. 

It  is  easy  for  people  in  Eiu'ope,  who  have  had  no  expe- 
rience of  the  presence  among  them  of  a  semi-civilized  race, 
destitute  of  the  ideas  and  habits  which  lie  at  the  basis  of 
fit'ee  government,  to  condemn  the  action  of  these  colonies 
in  seeking  to  preserve  a  decisive  electoral  majority  for  the 
whites.  But  any  one  who  has  studied  the  question  on  the 
spot,  and  especially  any  one  who  has  seen  the  evils  which 
in  America  have  followed  the  grant  of  the  suffrage  to  per- 
sons unfit  for  it,  wiU  form  a  more  charitable  judgment. 
It  would  be  impolitic  to  exclude  people  merely  on  the  score 
of  their  race.  There  are  among  the  educated  Kafirs  and 
Indians  persons  quite  as  capable  as  the  average  man  of 
European  stock,  and  it  is  wholesome  that  the  white,  too 
apt  to  despise  his  colored  neighbor,  should  be  made  to 
feel  this,  as  it  is  also  right  that  the  colored  man,  as  an 
elector,  should  have  some  weight  in  the  community,  and 
be  entitled  to  call  on  his  representative  to  listen  to  and 
express  the  demands  he  may  make  on  behalf  of  his  own 
race.  As  the  number  of  educated  and  property-holding 
natives  increases  they  will  naturally  come  to  form  a  larger 
element  in  the  electorate,  and  wiU  be  a  useful  one.  But 


BLACKS  AND  WHITES 


375 


to  toss  tlie  gift  of  political  power  into  the  lap  of  a  multi- 
tude of  persons  who  are  not  only  ignorant,  but  in  mind 
rather  children  than  men,  is  not  to  confer  a  boon,  but  to 
inflict  an  injury.  So  far  as  I  could  judge,  this  is  the  view 
of  the  most  sensible  natives  in  Cape  Colony  itself,  and  of 
the  missionaries  also,  who  have  been  the  steadiest  friends 
of  their  race.  What  is  most  reaUy  desii'able  is  to  safeguard 
the  private  rights  of  the  native,  and  to  secure  for  him  his 
due  share  of  the  land,  by  retaining  which  he  wiU  retain  a 
measure  of  independence.  The  less  he  is  thrown  into  the 
whirlpool  of  party  politics  the  better. 

Let  me  again  repeat  that  there  is  at  present  no  seri- 
ous friction  between  the  black  and  the  white  people  in 
South  Africa.  Though  the  attitude  of  most  of  the  whites — 
there  are,  of  course,  many  exceptions— is  contemptuous, 
unfriendly,  and  even  suspicious,  the  black  man  accepts  the 
superiority  of  the  white  as  part  of  the  order  of  nature. 
He  is  too  low  down,  too  completely  severed  from  the 
white,  to  feel  indignant.  Even  the  few  educated  natives 
are  too  well  aware  of  the  giilf  that  divides  their  own 
people  from  the  European  to  resent,  except  in  specially 
aggravated  cases,  the  attitude  of  the  latter.  Each  race 
goes  its  own  way  and  lives  its  own  life. 

The  condition  of  the  wild  or  tribal  Kafirs  can  be  much 
more  shortly  described,  for  they  have  as  yet  entered  into 
few  relations  with  the  whites.  They  are  in  many  different 
grades  of  civilization,  from  the  Basutos,  an  industrious 
and  settled  population,  among  whom  Christianity  has 
made  great  progress,  to  the  fierce  Matabili,  the  Barotse 
of  the  far  north,  and  the  Tongas  of  the  east  coast,  who 
remain  complete  savages.  There  are  probably  six  mil- 
lions of  Kafirs  living  under  their  chiefs  south  of  the 
Zambesi,  many  of  them  entirely  unaffected  by  Europeans, 


376  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


with  not  even  a  white  magistrate  or  a  native  commis- 
sioner to  collect  hut-tax ;  and  besides  these  there  are  the 
Korannas  (akin  to  the  Bushmen)  and  Namaquas  (akin 
to  the  Hottentots)  of  the  desert  country  between  Bechu- 
analand  and  the  Atlantic.  In  most  of  the  districts  where 
a  regular  British  or  Boer  government  has  been  established 
the  tribal  natives  are  now  settled  in  regular  locations, 
where  the  land  is  reserved  from  the  intrusion  of  Euro- 
peans. Here  they  live  under  their  chiefs  in  the  old  way 
(see  Chapter  X),  and  in  the  remoter  districts  continue 
to  practise  their  old  ceremonies.  In  Cape  Colony  and 
Natal,  however,  the  more  offensive  of  these  ceremonies  are 
now  forbidden  by  the  government.  Nowhere  is  anything 
done  for  their  education,  except  by  the  missionaries,  who, 
however,  receive  some  little  assistance  from  the  two  co- 
lonial governments.  Nevertheless,  the  ancient  rites  and 
behefs  gradually  decay  wherever  the  whites  come,  and, 
except  beyond  the  Zambesi,  intertribal  wars  and  raids 
have  now  practically  ceased.  Yet  the  tribal  hatreds  siir- 
vive.  Not  long  ago  the  Zulus  and  the  Kosa  Kafirs  em- 
ployed as  plate-layers  on  the  Cape  government  railway 
fought  fiercely  with  each  other.  One  powerful  influence 
is  telling  upon  them,  even  where  they  live  uncontrolled  by 
any  white  government.  The  diamond-mines  at  Kimberley, 
the  gold-mines  in  the  Witwatersrand  and  in  various  parts 
of  Mashonaland  and  Matabililand,  offer  large  wages  for 
native  labor,  and  cannot,  except  at  Kimberley,  obtain  as 
much  native  labor  as  they  need.  To  obtain  these  wages 
a  steady  stream  of  Kafirs  sets  toward  these  mining  centers, 
not  only  from  Basutoland,  Natal,  and  Bechuanaland,  but 
also  from  the  Portuguese  territories,  where  the  Shangans 
Uve,  and  from  the  banks  of  the  Zambesi.  Most  of  the 
workmen  remain  for  a  few  weeks  or  months  only,  and 


BLACKS  AND  WHITES 


377 


return  home  when  they  have  earned  as  much  money  as 
will  purchase  two  oxen,  heretofore  the  usual  price  of  a  wife. 
They  are  paid  in  English  coin,  and  thus  the  English  twenty- 
shilling  gold  piece  has  become  known  and  to-day  passes 
current  in  villages  where  no  white  man  has  yet  been  seen, 
even  beyond  the  Zambesi,  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Bang- 
weolo.  With  the  use  of  coin  there  will  come  in  time  a 
desire  for  European  goods,  which,  in  its  turn,  will  draw 
more  labor  toward  the  mines,  and  perhaps  at  last  create 
even  among  the  home-keeping  Kafirs  a  disposition  to  till 
the  land  or  raise  cattle  for  sale.  The  destruction  of  cattle 
by  the  murrain  which  has  been  raging  over  the  country 
may  accelerate  this  change.  Already  wandering  traders 
and  gold-prospectors  traverse  regions  beyond  the  border 
of  civilization;  and  to  keep  these  people,  who  are  often 
reckless  and  lawless,  from  injuring  the  natives  and  pro- 
voking them  to  take  vengeance  on  the  next  white  man 
who  comes  their  way,  is  one  of  the  greatest  difficulties 
of  the  British  government,  a  difficulty  aggravated  by  the 
absence  in  nearly  all  cases  of  sufficient  legal  evidence— for 
all  over  South  Africa  native  evidence  is  seldom  received 
against  a  white  man.  The  regions  in  which  white  influ- 
ence is  now  most  active,  and  which  will  most  quickly 
become  assimilated  to  the  two  British  colonies,  are  those 
through  which  railways  are  now  being  constructed— 
Bechuanaland,  Matabililand,  and  Mashonaland.  Should 
the  mines  in  these  countries  turn  out  well,  and  means  be 
found  for  replacing  by  new  stock  the  cattle  that  have  per- 
ished, these  regions  may  in  fifteen  or  twenty  years  possess 
a  considerable  population  of  non-tribal  and  semi-civilized 
natives.  "Within  the  next  half-century  it  is  probable  that, 
at  least  in  the  British  territories  as  far  as  the  Zambesi,  as 
well  as  in  the  Transvaal  and  Swaziland,  the  power  of  the 


378  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


chiefs  will  have  practically  vanished  and  the  natives  be  in 
a  position  similar  to  that  "which  they  now  hold  in  Natal 
and  the  greater  part  of  Cape  Colony ;  that  is  to  say,  they 
will  either  dwell  among  the  whites  under  the  ordinary  law, 
or  will  be  occupying  reservations  under  the  control  of  a 
European  magistrate,  their  old  land  customs  ha^dng  been 
mostly  superseded  and  theii*  heathen  rites  forbidden  or 
disused. 

The  position  which  the  whites  and  the  blacks  hold 
toward  one  another  in  South  Africa  is  sufficiently  similar 
to  that  of  the  two  races  in  the  Southern  States  of  America, 
to  make  a  short  comparison  between  the  two  cases  in- 
structive. There  are  no  doubt  many  differences.  In  the 
United  States  the  Southern  negroes  are  strangers  and 
therefore  isolated,  with  no  such  reserve  of  black  people 
behind  them  as  the  Kafirs  have  in  the  rest  of  the  African 
continent.  In  South  Africa  it  is  the  whites  who  are 
strangers  and  isolated,  and  they  are  numerically  inferior 
to  the  blacks,  not,  as  in  America,  in  a  few  particular  areas 
(the  three  States  of  South  CaroUna,  Mississippi,  and  Lou- 
isiana), but  all  over  the  country.  In  the  whole  United 
States  the  whites  are  to  the  blacks  as  ten  to  one ;  in 
Africa  south  of  the  Zambesi  it  is  the  blacks  who  are 
ten  to  one  to  the  whites.  Or  if  we  compare  the  South 
African  colonies  and  republics  with  the  old  slave  States, 
the  blacks  are  in  the  former  nearly  four  times  as  numer- 
ous as  the  whites,  and  the  whites  in  the  latter  twice  as 
numerous  as  the  blacks.  In  point  of  natm-al  capacity  and 
force  of  character  the  Bantu  races  are  at  least  equal,  prob- 
ably superior,  to  the  negroes  brought  from  Africa  to 
North  America,  most  of  whom  seem  to  have  come  from 
the  Guinea  coasts.  But  in  point  of  education  and  in 
habits  of  industry  the  American  negroes  are  far  ahead  of 


BLACKS  AND  WHITES 


379 


the  Soutii  African ;  for  the  latter  have  not  been  subjected 
to  the  industrial  training  of  nearly  two  centuries  of  plan- 
tation life  or  domestic  service,  while  comparatively  few 
have  had  any  industrial  contact  with  white  workmen,  or 
any  stimulation  like  that  which  the  grant  of  the  suffrage 
after  the  War  of  Secession  has  exercised  upon  a  large 
section  of  the  American  negroes,  even  in  places  where  they 
have  not  been  permitted  to  turn  their  nominal  rights  to 
practical  account.  The  American  negroes  are,  moreover, 
all  nominally  Christians ;  the  South  African  Kafirs  nearly 
all  heathens.  Yet,  after  allowing  for  these  and  other  minor 
points  of  contrast,  the  broad  fact  remains  that  in  both 
countries  we  see  two  races  in  very  different  stages  of  civili- 
zation dwelling  side  by  side,  yet  not  mingling  nor  likely  to 
mingle.  In  both  countries  one  race  rules  over  the  other. 
The  stronger  despises  and  dislikes  the  weaker ;  the  weaker 
submits  patiently  to  the  stronger.  But  the  weaker  makes 
in  education  and  in  property  a  progress  which  will  some 
day  bring  it  much  nearer  to  the  stronger  than  it  is  now. 

The  social  and  political  troubles  which  the  juxtaposi- 
tion of  the  two  races  has  caused  in  North  America,  and 
which  have  induced  many  Americans  to  wish  that  it  were 
possible  to  transport  the  whole  seven  millions  of  Southern 
negroes  back  to  the  Niger  or  the  Congo,  have  as  yet 
scarcely  shown  themselves  in  South  Africa.  Neither  in 
the  British  colonies  nor  in  the  Boer  republics  is  there  any 
cause  for  present  apprehension.  The  colored  people  are 
submissive  and  not  resentful.  They  have,  moreover,  a 
certain  number  of  friends  and  advocates  in  the  legislatures 
of  the  colonies,  and  a  certain  amount  of  public  opinion, 
the  opinion  of  the  best  part  of  the  community,  disposed 
to  protect  them.  Nevertheless,  no  traveler  can  study  the 
color  problem  in  South  Africa  without  anxiety— anxiety 


380 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


not  for  the  present,  but  for  the  future,  in  which  the  seeds 
that  are  now  being  sown  wOl  have  sprung  up  and  grown 
to  maturity. 

What  is  the  future  of  the  Kafirs  likely  to  be  ?  Though 
a  writer  may  prophesy  with  an  easy  mind  when  he  knows 
that  the  truth  or  error  of  the  prophecy  will  not  be  tested ' 
till  long  after  he  has  himself  quitted  the  world,  still  it  is 
right  to  make  the  usual  apologies  for  venturing  to  prophesy 
at  all.  These  apologies  being  taken  as  made,  let  us  con- 
sider what  is  likely  to  come  to  pass  in  South  Africa. 

The  Kafirs  will  stay  where  they  are  and  form  the  bulk 
of  the  population  all  over  South  Africa.  Some  sanguine 
men  think  they  will  move  off  to  the  hotter  north,  as  in 
America  the  center  of  negro  population  has  shifted  south- 
ward toward  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  This  is  improbable, 
because  the  South  African  white  seems  resolved  to  rely 
upon  natives  for  all  the  harder  and  rougher  kinds  of  labor, 
not  to  add  that,  although  the  European  can  thrive  and 
work,  the  Kafir  is  more  truly  the  child  of  the  soil  and  of 
the  climate.  And  not  only  will  he  stay,  but,  to  all  ap- 
pearances, he  will  increase  faster  than  does  the  white  man. 

The  Kafirs,  now  divided  into  many  tribes  and  speaking 
many  languages  and  dialects,  will  lose  their  present  tri- 
bal organization,  their  languages,  their  distinctive  habits. 
"Whether  some  sort  of  native  lingua  Franca  will  spring 
up,  or  whether  they  will  all  come  to  speak  English,  is 
doubtful ;  but  probably  in  the  long  run  English  will  pre- 
vail and  become  the  common  speech  of  the  southern  half 
of  the  continent.  They  will  also  lose  their  heathenism 
(though  many  superstitions  will  siu'vive),  and  will  become, 
in  name  at  least,  Christians.  Thus  they  will  f onn  to  a  far 
greater  extent  than  now  a  homogeneous  mass  adhering  to 
the  same  ideas  and  customs. 


BLACKS  AND  WHITES 


381 


While  thus  constituting  one  vast  black  community, 
they  will  remain  as  sharply  marked  off  from  the  whites  as 
they  are  to-day.  That  there  will  be  no  intermarriage  may 
safely  be  assumed  from  the  fact  that  mixture  of  blood 
has  greatly  diminished  since  the  days  of  slavery,  just  as  it 
has  diminished  in  the  Southern  States  of  America  now. 
White  opinion  universally  condemns  it,  and  rightly,  for 
as  things  are  now  the  white  race  would  lose  more  by  the 
admixture  than  the  colored  race  would  gain. 

The  Kafirs  will  be  far  more  generally  educated  than 
they  are  now,  and  will  have  developed  a  much  higher  in- 
telligence. That  they  wiD.  remain  inferior  to  the  whites 
in  aU  intellectual  pursuits  and  in  most  handicrafts  may 
be  concluded  from  American  experience;  but  they  wiU 
doubtless  be  able  to  compete  with  white  men  in  many 
trades,  will  to  some  extent  enter  the  professions,  wUl  ac- 
quire property,  and  (assuming  the  law  to  remain  as  at 
present)  will  form  a  much  larger  part,  though  probably 
for  a  very  long  time  a  minority,  of  the  electorate.  From 
among  them  there  will  doubtless  arise  men  fit  to  lead  them 
for  social  and  political  purposes.  A  talent  for  public 
speaking  is  already  remarked  as  one  of  their  gifts. 

Thus  the  day  will  arrive  when  South  Africa  wiU  see 
itself  filled  by  a  large  colored  population,  tolerably  homo- 
geneous, using  the  same  language,  having  forgotten  its 
ancient  tribal  feuds,  and  not,  like  the  people  of  India, 
divided  by  caste  or  by  the  mutual  hatred  of  Hindus  and 
Mussulmans.  Most  of  this  population  will  be  poor,  and 
it  may,  unless  successive  colonies  are  led  off  to  the  more 
thinly  peopled  parts  of  Africa,  tread  hard  upon  the  means 
of  subsistence  which  the  land  offers ;  I  say  the  land,  for  the 
mines— or  at  least  the  gold-mines— will  have  been  ex- 
hausted long  before  the  day  we  are  considering  arrives. 


382 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


When  will  that  day  arrive  ?  Probably  not  for  at  least  a 
century,  possibly  not  for  two  centuries.  Fast  as  the  world 
moves  in  our  time,  it  must  take  several  generations  to 
develop  a  race  so  backward  as  the  Kafirs.  Many  pohtical 
changes  may  occur  before  then ;  but  pohtical  changes  are 
not  likely  to  make  much  difference  to  a  process  like  this, 
which  goes  on  under  natiu-al  laws — laws  that  will  eontiaue 
to  work  whatever  may  happen  to  the  Boers,  and  whatever 
may  be  the  future  relations  of  the  colonies  to  the  mother 
country.  It  is  only  some  gi'eat  change  in  human  thought 
and  f  eehng,  or  some  great  discovery  in  the  physical  world, 
that  can  be  imagined  as  likely  to  affect  the  progress  of  the 
natives  and  the  attitude  of  the  whites  toward  them. 

When,  perhaps  in  the  twenty-first  century,  the  native 
population  has  reached  the  point  of  progress  we  have  been 
imagining,  the  position  may  be  for  both  races  a  grave  or 
even  a  perilous  one,  if  the  feeling  and  behavior  of  the 
whites  continue  to  be  what  they  are  now.  The  pres- 
ent contented  acquiescence  of  the  colored  people  in  the 
dominance  of  the  whites,  and  the  absence  of  resentment 
at  the  contempt  displayed  toward  them,  cannot  be  ex- 
pected from  a  people  whose  inferiority,  though  still  real, 
will  be  much  less  palpable.  And  if  trouble  comes,  the 
preponderance  of  niimbers  on  the  black  side  may  make  it 
more  serious  than  it  could  be  in  the  United  States,  where 
the  Southern  whites  are  only  the  outmost  fringe  of  an 
enormous  white  nation.  These  anxieties  are  little  felt, 
these  problems  are  little  canvassed,  in  South  Africa,  for 
things  which  will  not  happen  in  our  time  or  in  the  time 
of  our  childi'en  are  for  us  as  though  they  would  never 
happen ;  and  we  have  become  so  accustomed  to  see  the  un- 
expected happen  as  to  forget  that  where  undoubted  natural 
causes  are  at  work— causes  whose  working  history  has  ex- 


BLACKS  AND  WHITES 


383 


amined— results  may  be  practically  certain,  even  though 
the  time  when  and  the  precise  form  in  which  they  will  ar- 
rive may  be  uncertain.  There  are,  however,  some  thought- 
ful men  in  the  colonies  who  see  the  magnitude  of  the 
issues  involved  in  this  native  problem.  They  hold,  so  far 
as  I  could  gather  their  views,  that  the  three  chief  things 
to  be  done  now  are  to  save  the  natives  from  intoxicating 
liquor,  which  injures  them  even  more  than  it  does  the 
whites,  to  enact  good  land  laws,  which  shall  keep  them 
from  flocking  as  a  loafing  proletariate  into  the  towns,  and 
just  labor  laws,  and  to  give  them  much  better  oppor- 
tunities than  they  now  have  of  industrial  training.  Manual 
education  and  the  habit  of  steady  industry  are  quite  as 
much  needed  as  book  education,  a  conclusion  at  which  the 
friends  of  the  American  negro  have  also  arrived.  Beyond 
this  the  main  thing  to  be  done  seems  to  be  to  soften  the 
feelings  of  the  average  white  and  to  mend  his  manners. 
At  present  he  considers  the  native  to  exist  solely  for  his 
own  benefit.  He  is  harsh  or  kindly  according  to  his  own 
temper ;  but  whether  harsh  or  kindly,  he  is  apt  to  think 
of  the  black  man  much  as  he  thinks  of  an  ox,  and  to 
ignore  a  native's  rights  when  they  are  inconvenient  to 
himself. 

Could  he  be  got  to  feel  more  kindly  toward  the  native, 
and  to  treat  him,  if  not  as  an  equal,  which  he  is  not,  yet 
as  a  child,  this  aspect  of  the  problem  would  be  altered. 


CHAPTER  XXII 


MISSIONS 

THE  strength  and  vitality  of  a  race,  and  its  power  of 
holding  its  own  in  the  world  depend  less  on  the  quick- 
ness of  its  inteUigence  than  on  the  solidity  of  its  character. 
Its  character  depends  upon  the  moral  ideas  which  govern 
its  life,  and  on  the  habits  in  which  those  ideas  take  shape ; 
and  these,  in  their  turn,  depend  very  largely  upon  the  con- 
ceptions which  the  race  has  formed  of  reUgion,  and  on  the 
influence  that  religion  has  over  it.  This  is  especially  true 
of  peoples  in  the  earlier  stages  of  civilization.  Their  social 
virtues,  the  behef  s  and  principles  which  hold  them  together 
and  influence  their  conduct,  rest  upon  and  are  shaped  by 
their  beliefs  regarding  the  in^dsible  world  and  its  forces. 
Races  in  which  religious  ideas  are  vague  and  feeble, 
wanting  the  stronger  bonds,  seldom  attain  to  a  vigorous 
national  life,  because  they  want  one  of  the  most  effective 
bonds  of  cohesion  and  some  of  the  strongest  motives  that 
rule  conduct.  It  may  doubtless  be  said  that  the  reUgion 
of  a  people  is  as  much  an  effect  as  a  cause,  or,  in  other 
words,  that  the  finer  or  poorer  quality  of  a  race  is  seen  in 
the  sort  of  religion  it  makes  for  itself,  the  higher  races 
producing  nobler  religious  ideas  and  more  impressive 
mythologies,  just  as  they  produce  richer  and  more  ex- 

384 


MISSIONS 


385 


pressive  languages.  Nevertheless,  it  remains  true  that  a 
religion,  once  formed,  becomes  a  potent  factor  in  the 
future  strength  and  progress  of  a  people.  Now  the  re- 
ligious ideas  of  the  Bantu  races,  as  of  other  negroes,  have 
been  scanty,  poor,  and  unfruitful.  And  accordingly,  one 
cannot  meditate  upon  their  condition  and  endeavor  to 
forecast  their  progress  without  giving  some  thought  to 
the  influence  which  better  ideas,  and  especially  those  em- 
bodied in  Christianity,  may  have  upon  them. 

Neither  the  Kafii's  nor  the  Hottentots  have  had  a  reli- 
gion in  our  sense  of  the  word.  They  had  no  deities,  no 
priesthood,  no  regular  forms  of  worship.  They  were, 
when  Europeans  discovered  them,  stiU  in  the  stage  in 
which  most,  if  not  all,  primitive  races  would  seem  to  have 
once  been— that  of  fearing  and  seeking  to  propitiate  na- 
ture spirits  and  the  ghosts  of  the  dead,  a  form  of  super- 
stition in  which  there  was  scarcely  a  trace  of  morality. 
Hence  the  first  task  of  the  missionaries  who  came  among 
them  was  to  create  a  religious  sense,  to  give  them  the  con- 
ception of  an  omnipotent  spiritual  power  outside  natural 
objects  and  above  man,  and  to  make  them  regard  this 
power  as  the  source  of  moral  ideas  and  the  author  of  moral 
commands.    To  do  this  has  been  a  difficult  task. 

Besides  this  constructive  work,  which  was  less  needed 
in  some  other  more  advanced  heathen  races,  the  mission- 
aries had  also  a  destructive  work  to  do.  Though  the  Kafirs 
had  no  religion,  they  had  a  multitude  of  superstitious  rites 
and  usages  closely  intertwined  with  the  whole  of  their  life 
and  with  what  one  may  call  their  political  system.  These 
usages  were  so  repugnant  to  Christian  morality,  and  often 
to  common  decency,  that  it  became  necessary  to  attack 
them  and  to  require  the  convert  to  renounce  them  alto- 
gether.   Renunciation,  however,  meant  a  severance  from 

25 


386  IMPRESSIONS  OP  SOUTH  AFRICA 


the  life  of  the  tribe,  contempt  and  displeasure  from  the 
tribesmen,  and  possibly  the  loss  of  tribal  rights.  These 
were  evils  which  it  required  courage  and  conviction  to 
face,  nor  had  the  missionary  any  temporal  benefits  to  offer 
by  way  of  compensation.  There  was,  however,  very  little 
direct  persecution,  because  there  were  no  gods  who  would 
be  incensed,  and  the  witch-doctors  were  a  less  formidable 
opponent  than  a  regular  priesthood  would  have  been.  The 
chiefs  were  often  friendly,  for  they  recognized  the  value  of 
missionary  knowledge  and  counsel.  Even  the  ferocious 
Mosilikatze  showed  kindness  to  Robert  Moffat,  and  Liv- 
ingstone complained  far  more  of  the  Boers  than  he  ever 
did  of  Kafir  enemies.  Lo  Bengula  protected  the  mission- 
aries ;  Gungunhana  listened,  and  made  his  chiefs  listen,  to 
their  discourses,  though  his  nearest  approach  to  conver- 
sion was  his  expression  of  detestation  for  Judas  Iscariot. 
But  it  rarely  befell  that  a  chief  himself  accepted  Chris- 
tianity, which  would  have  meant,  among  other  things,  the 
departure  of  all  his  wives  but  one,  and  possibly  the  loss  of 
his  hold  upon  his  tribe.  All  these  things  being  considered, 
it  need  excite  no  surprise  that  the  gospel  should  have 
made  comparatively  little  progress  among  the  wild  or 
tribal  Kafirs. 

It  has  been  preached  to  them  for  nearly  a  century,  by 
German  (chiefly,  I  think,  Moravian)  and  French,  as  well 
as  by  English,  Scottish,  and  American  missionaries.  At 
present  there  are  not  a  few  British  societies  and  denom- 
inations in  the  field.  The  French  Protestants  have  done 
some  excellent  work,  especially  in  Basutoland,  and  have 
also  stations  near  the  east  coast  and  on  the  Upper  Zambesi. 
There  are  also  French  Roman  Catholic  missions,  mostly 
in  the  hands  of  Jesuit  fathers,  many  of  whom  are  men  of 
learning  and  ability.    Between  the  Roman  Catholics,  the 


MISSIONS 


387 


Protestant  Episcopalians  (Church  of  England),  and  the 
missionaries  of  the  English  Nonconformists  and  Scottish 
or  French  Presbyterians  there  is  little  intercourse  and 
no  cooperation.  The  absence  of  it  here,  as  in  other  mis- 
sion fields,  puzzles  the  native.  I  was  told  of  an  English 
(Protestant  Episcopal)  clergyman  who  made  it  one  of  his 
prime  objects  to  warn  the  Kafirs  against  attending  the 
services  of  the  French  Protestant  missionaries,  whom  he 
apparently  regarded  as  outside  the  pale  of  the  true  church. 
In  the  Boer  republics  there  are  fewer  missions  in  propor- 
tion to  the  number  of  natives  than  in  British  territories, 
but  no  district,  except  the  deserts  of  the  west,  seems  to 
be  wholly  unprovided  for,  and  in  some  cases  stations  have 
been  pushed  far  beyond  the  limits  of  European  adminis- 
tration, as,  for  instance,  among  the  Barotse  who  dwell 
north  of  the  Upper  Zambesi.  The  native  congregations 
are  usually  smaU,  and  the  careers  of  the  converts  not 
always  satisfactory.  This  is  so  natural  that  it  is  odd  to 
find  Europeans,  and  most  conspicuously  those  whose  own 
life  is  not  a  model  of  Christian  morahty,  continually  growl- 
ing and  sneering  against  the  missionaries  because  their 
converts  do  not  all  turn  out  saints.  The  savage  is  unstable 
in  character,  and  baptism  does  not  necessarily  extinguish 
either  his  old  habits  or  the  hold  which  native  superstitions 
have  upon  him.  It  is  in  this  instability  of  his  will,  and 
his  proneness  to  yield  to  drink  or  some  other  temptation, 
rather  than  in  his  intellect,  that  the  weakness  of  the  savage 
lies.  And  a  man  with  hundreds  of  generations  of  sav- 
agery behind  him  is  still,  and  must  be,  in  many  respects 
a  savage,  even  though  he  reads  and  writes,  and  wears 
European  clothes,  and  possibly  even  a  white  necktie. 
The  Kafirs  are  not  such  had  Christians  as  the  Prankish 
warriors  were  for  two  or  three  generations  after  the  con- 


388  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


version  of  Clovis.  We  must  wait  for  several  generations 
before  we  can  judge  fairly  of  the  influence  of  Ms  new  re- 
ligion upon  the  mind  of  a  Kafir  whose  ancestors  had  no 
religion  at  all,  and  were  ruled  by  the  lowest  forms  of 
superstition. 

These  facts  are  better  recognized  by  the  missionaries 
to-day  than  they  were  sixty  years  ago,  and  they  have  in 
consequence  made  some  changes  in  their  methods.  They 
are  no  longer  so  anxious  to  baptize,  or  so  apt  to  reckon 
success  by  the  number  of  their  converts.  They  are  more 
cautious  in  ordaining  native  pastors.  The  aid  of  such 
pastors  is  indispensable,  but  the  importance  of  the  ex- 
ample which  the  native  preacher  or  teacher  sets  makes  it 
necessary  to  be  careful  in  selection.  The  dogma  of  the 
equality  of  the  black  man  and  the  white,  which  was 
warmly  insisted  on  in  the  old  days,  and  often  roused  the 
wrath  of  the  Boers,  has  now  been  silently  dropped.  It 
was  a  dogma  wholesome  to  inculcate  so  far  as  equality 
of  protection  was  concerned,  but  its  wider  application  led 
the  early  philanthropists  of  South  Africa,  as  it  led  their 
excellent  contemporaries,  the  abolitionists  of  America,  to 
some  strange  conclusions.  Perceiving  that  other  influ- 
ences ought  to  go  hand  in  hand  with  religion  in  helping 
the  natives  forward,  the  missionaries  now  devote  them- 
selves more  than  formerly  to  secular  instruction,  and 
endeavor  to  train  the  people  to  habits  of  industry.  The 
work  of  education  is  indeed  entirely  in  their  hands. 
Special  mention  is  due  to  one  admirable  institution,  that 
which  was  founded  by  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  at 
Lovedale,  in  the  Eastern  Province,  not  far  from  King 
William's  Town,  nearly  fifty  years  ago.  Conducted  on 
whoUy  non-sectarian  lines,  it  receives  colored  people,  to- 
gether with  some  whites,  not  only  from  the  Colony,  but 


MISSIONS 


38& 


from  all  parts  of  Africa,— there  are  even  G-alla  boys  from 
the  borders  of  Abyssinia  in  it,— and  gives  an  excellent 
education,  fitting  young  men  and  women  not  only  for  the 
native  ministry,  but  for  the  professions ;  and  it  is  admitted 
even  by  those  who  are  least  friendly  to  missionary  work 
to  have  rendered  immense  services  to  the  natives.  I  vis- 
ited it,  and  was  greatly  struck  by  the  tone  and  spirit  which 
seemed  to  pervade  it,  a  spirit  whose  results  are  seen  in 
the  character  and  careers  of  many  among  its  graduates. 
A  race  in  the  present  condition  of  the  Kafirs  needs  noth- 
ing more  than  the  creation  of  a  body  of  intelligent  and 
educated  persons  of  its  own  blood,  who  are  able  to  enter 
into  the  difficulties  of  their  humbler  kinsfolk  and  guide 
them  wisely.  Dr.  Stewart,  who  has  directed  the  institu- 
tion for  many  years,  possesses  that  best  kind  of  missionary 
temperament,  ia  which  a  hopeful  spirit  and  an  inexhaus- 
tible sympathy  are  balanced  by  Scottish  shrewdness  and 
a  cool  Judgment. 

One  of  the  greatest  difficulties  which  confront  the  mis- 
sionaries is  to  know  how  to  deal  with  polygamy,  a  practice 
deeply  rooted  in  Kafir  life.  A  visitor  from  Europe  is  at 
first  surprised  to  find  how  seriously  they  regard  it,  and 
asks  whether  the  example  of  the  worthies  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament does  not  make  it  hard  for  them  to  refuse  baptism 
to  the  native  who  seeks  it,  though  he  has  more  than  one 
wife.  The  clergy  of  the  Church  of  England,  however, 
and  those  of  the  French  Protestant  Church,  are  unani- 
mous in  holding  that,  although  they  may  properly  admit 
polygamists  as  catechumens,  they  should  not  baptize  such 
a  one ;  and  they  say  that  the  native  pastors  hold  this  view 
even  more  strongly  than  they  do  themselves.  Polygamy 
is  so  bound  up  with  heathen  customs,  and  exerts,  in  their 
view,  so  entirely  baneful  an  influence  upon  native  society, 

25* 


390 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


that  it  must  be  at  all  hazards  resisted  and  condemned.^ 
One  is  reminded  of  the  Neoplatonic  philosophers,  the  last 
professors  of  the  Platonic  academy  at  Athens,  who  in  the 
sixth  century  of  our  era  sought  an  asylum  from  Christian 
persecution  at  the  court  of  Chosroes  Anurshirwan,  in  Per- 
sia. They  forced  themselves  to  tolerate  the  other  usages 
of  the  people  among  whom  they  came,  but  polygamy  was 
too  much  for  them,  and  rather  than  dwell  among  those 
who  practised  it,  they  returned  to  the  unfriendly  soil  of 
the  Roman  empire. 

The  missionaries,  and  especially  those  of  the  London 
Missionary  Society,  played  at  one  time  a  much  more  prom- 
inent part  in  politics  than  they  now  sustain.  Within  and 
on  the  borders  of  Cape  Colony  they  were,  for  the  first  sixty 
years  of  the  present  century,  the  leading  champions  of 
the  natives,  and  as  they  enjoyed  the  support  of  an  active 
body  of  opinion  in  England  and  Scotland,  they  had  much 
influence  in  Parliament  and  with  the  Colonial  Office.  Out- 
side the  Colony  they  were  often  the  principal  advisers  of 
the  native  chiefs  (as  their  brethren  were  at  the  same  time 
in  the  islands  of  the  Pacific),  and  held  a  place  not  unlike 
that  of  the  bishops  in  Gaul  in  the  fifth  century  of  our  era. 
Since,  in  advocating  the  cause  of  the  natives,  they  had 
often  to  complain  of  the  behavior  of  the  whites,  and  since, 
whenever  a  chief  came  into  collision  with  the  emigrant 
Boers  or  with  colonial  fi'ontiersmen,  they  became  the 
channel  by  which  the  chief  stated  his  case  to  the  British 
government,  they  incurred  the  bitter  hostility  of  the  Boers 
and  some  dislike  even  in  the  Colony.  To  this  old  cause 
much  of  the  unpopularity  that  stUl  attaches  to  them  seems 
due.    Unpopular  they  certainly  are.    They  are  reproached 

1  After  listening  to  their  arguments  I  did  not  doubt  that  they  were 
right. 


MISSIONS 


3«1 


with  the  paucity  of  their  converts,  and  that  by  white  men 
whose  own  treatment  of  the  Kafirs  might  well  make  the 
white  man's  rehgion  odious  to  a  native.  They  are  also 
accused  of  abusing  their  position  to  enrich  themselves  by 
trade  with  the  Kafirs.  This  abuse  has  sometimes  occurred, 
and  clearly  ought  to  be  checked  by  the  home  societies. 
But  probably  it  does  not  disgust  the  wandering  white 
trader  any  more  than  the  fact  that  the  missionary  often 
warns  the  native  against  the  exorbitant  prices  which  the 
trader  demands  for  his  goods.  They  are  blamed  for  mak- 
ing the  converted  Kafir  uppish,  and  telling  him  that  he  is 
as  good  as  a  white  man,  an  offense  which  has  no  doubt 
been  often  committed.  A  graver  allegation,  to  which  Mr. 
Theal  has  given  some  countenance  in  his  historical  writ- 
ings, is  that  they  used  to  bring  groundless  or  exaggerated 
charges  against  the  Boer  farmers,  and  always  sided  with 
the  natives,  whatever  the  merits  of  the  case.  I  do  not 
venture  to  pronounce  on  the  truth  of  this  allegation, 
which  it  would  take  much  time  and  labor  to  sift.  As 
there  have  been  some  few  missionaries  whose  demeanor 
was  not  creditable  to  their  profession,  so  there  have 
doubtless  been  instances  in  which  partizan  ardor  betrayed 
them  into  exaggerations.  But  whoever  remembers  that 
but  for  the  missionaries  the  natives  would  have  lacked  all 
local  protection,  and  that  it  was  only  through  the  mission- 
aries that  news  of  injustice  or  cruelty  practised  on  a  native 
could  reach  the  ears  of  the  British  government,  will  look 
leniently  on  the  errors  of  honest  zeal,  and  will  rejoice  that 
ministers  of  religion  were  found  to  champion  the  cause  of 
the  weaker  race  and  keep  the  home  government  alive  to  a 
sense  of  one  of  its  first  duties. 

Notwithstanding  the  slowness  of  the  progress  hitherto 
made,  the  extinction  of  heathenism  in  South  Africa  may 


392  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


be  deemed  certain,  and  certain  at  no  distant  date.  There 
is  here  no  ancient  and  highly  organized  system  of  beliefs 
and  doctrines,  such  as  Hinduism  and  Islam  are  in  India, 
to  resist  the  solvent  power  which  European  ci^alization 
exerts.  In  forty  years  there  will  probably  be  no  more 
pagan  rites  practised  in  Cape  Colony.  In  eighty  years 
there  will  be  none  in  Matabililand,  or  perhaps  even  sooner, 
if  the  gold-reefs  turn  out  well ;  for  though  a  mining-camp 
is  not  a  school  of  Christianity,  it  is  a  destroyer  of  pagan- 
ism. Already  I  found,  in  traversing  Mashonaland,  that 
the  poor  ghosts  were  ceasing  to  receive  their  accustomed 
offerings  of  native  beer. 

What  will  happen  when  heathenism  and  the  tribal 
system  have  vanished  away?  Such  morality,  such  prin- 
ciples of  manly  conduct  as  the  natives  now  have,  are  bound 
up  with  their  ghost-worship  and  still  more  with  their 
tribal  system,  which  prescribes  loyalty  to  the  chief,  cour- 
age in  war,  devotion  to  the  interests  of  the  tribe  or  clan. 
When  these  principles  have  disappeared  along  with  the 
tribal  organization,  some  other  principles,  some  other 
standard  of  duty  and  precepts  of  conduct,  ought  to  be  at 
hand  to  replace  them.  Where  are  such  precepts  to  be 
found,  and  whence  are  the  motives  and  emotions  to  be 
drawn  which  will  give  the  new  precepts  a  power  to  com- 
mand the  will  ?  Although  the  Kafirs  have  shown  rather 
less  aptitude  for  assimilating  Christian  teaching  than  some 
other  savage  races  have  done,  there  is  nothing  in  the  ex- 
perience of  the  missions  to  discourage  the  hope  that  such 
teaching  may  come  to  prevail  among  them,  and  that 
through  it  the  next  generation  may  show  a  certain  moral 
advance  upon  that  which  has  gone  before.  As  the  pro- 
fession of  Christianity  will  create  a  certain  Link  between 
the  Kafirs  and  their  rulers  which  may  soften  the  asperity 


MISSIONS 


393 


whicli  the  relations  of  the  two  races  now  wear,  so  its  doc- 
trines will  in  time  give  them  a  standard  of  conduct  simi- 
lar to  that  accepted  among  the  whites,  and  an  ideal  which 
will  influence  the  superior  minds  among  them.  So  much 
may  certainly  be  said :  that  the  Gospel  and  the  mission 
schools  are  at  present  the  most  truly  civilizing  influences 
which  work  upon  the  natives,  and  that  upon  these  influ- 
ences, more  than  on  any  other  agency,  does  the  progress 
of  the  colored  race  depend. 


CHAPTER  XXm 


SOCIAL  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  TWO  BRITISH 
COLOXTES 

THE  two  South  African  colonies  have  not  yet  had  time 
to  develop  nevr  and  distinctive  types  of  life  and  char- 
acter. Though  Cape  Colony  is  nearly  as  old  as  Massa- 
chusetts or  Yu'ginia,  it  has  been  less  than  a  century  under 
British  rule,  and  the  two  diverse  elements  in  its  population 
have  not  yet  become  blended  into  any  one  type  that  can  be 
said  to  belong  to  the  people  as  a  whole.  One  must  there- 
fore describe  these  elements  separately.  The  Dutch  are 
nearly  all  country  folk,  and  the  country  folk  are  (in  Cape 
Colony)  mostly  Dutch.  Some,  especially  near  Cape  Town, 
are  agriculturists,  but  many  more  are  ranchmen  or  sheep- 
masters.  They  are  a  slow,  quiet,  well-meaning  people,  ex- 
tremely conservative  in  then*  opinions  as  well  as  their 
habits,  very  sparing,  because  they  have  httle  ready  money, 
very  suspicious,  because  afraid  of  being  outwitted  by 
the  English  traders.  That  love  of  cleanliness  for  which 
then-  kinsfolk  in  Holland  are  famous  has  vanished  under 
the  conditions  of  a  settler's  life  and  the  practice  of  using 
negro  servants,  and  they  are  now  apt  to  be  slatternly. 
They  hve  in  a  simple,  old-fashioned  way,  losing  soUtude 
and  isolation,  jet  very  hospitable,  and  enjojing  the  rare 

394 


SOCIAL  CHARACTERISTICS 


396 


occasions  on  whicli  they  meet  for  festivities  at  one  an- 
other's farm-houses.  These  are  almost  their  only  recre- 
ations, for  hunting  is  less  attainable  now  that  the  larger 
game  has  disappeared,  and  they  care  nothing  for  the  in- 
tellectual pleasures  of  reading  or  art  or  music.  Edu- 
cation is  now  pretty  widely  diffused  among  them,  but  it 
has  not  yet  done  much  to  quicken  their  minds  or  give 
them  new  interests.  The  population  is  so  extremely  thin, 
the  towns  so  few  and  so  small,  that  it  is  not  surprising 
that  a  people  who  came  out  from  the  least  educated  strata 
of  society  in  HoUand  should,  under  the  difficult  conditions 
of  a  settler's  life,  have  remained  at  a  low  level  of  mental 
culture.  They  would  probably  have  been  still  more  back- 
ward, and  have  produced  fewer  men  of  ability,  but  for  the 
infusion  of  French  Huguenot  blood,  which  stiU  reveals 
itself  in  the  names  of  some  of  the  leading  families. 

Compared  to  the  Dutch  the  English  are  recent  immi- 
grants. They  have  aU  arrived  within  the  present  centiuy, 
and  few  of  them  can  point  to  grandfathers  born  in  South 
Africa.  Partly  for  this  reason,  partly  from  their  desire  to 
be  unlike  the  Dutch,  they  have  remained  markedly  English, 
both  in  their  speech,  in  their  ideas,  and,  so  far  as  the  differ- 
ences of  climate  permit,  in  their  way  of  Uf  e.  Nevertheless, 
they  have  been  affected  by  the  Dutch.  They  have  taken 
from  the  latter  the  aversion  to  field-labor,  the  contempt  for 
the  blacks,  the  tendency  to  prefer  large  pastoral  farms 
to  agriculture,  and,  in  some  districts,  a  rather  sleepy  and 
easy-going  temperament.  Even  in  Mashonaland  I  was 
told  that  the  English  ranchmen  were  apt  to  fall  into  the 
habits  of  the  Boer  neighbors.  They  form  the  large  ma- 
jority of  the  town  population,  for  not  only  the  seaports, 
but  also  such  inland  places  as  Graham's  Town,  King  Wil- 
liam's Town,  and  Kimberley  are  quite  English,  and  nearly 


396 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


all  the  commerce  and  finance  of  the  country  are  in  their 
hands.  They  have  more  enterprise  than  the  Dutch,  and 
are  much  less  antiquated  in  their  ideas,  so  it  is  to  them 
that  the  profits  of  the  new  mining  ventiu'es  have  chiefly 
fallen,  so  far  as  these  have  not  been  appropriated  by  keener 
and  more  ingenious  adventurers  from  Europe,  mostly  of 
Semitic  stock. 

There  has  been  hardly  any  Irish  immigration;  and 
though  one  meets  many  Scotchmen  among  the  bankers 
and  merchants,  the  Scottish  element  seems  smaller  than 
in  Ontario  or  most  of  the  Australasian  colonies.  Fully 
as  many  settlers  have  come  from  Germany,  but  these  have 
now  become  blended  with  the  EngUsh.  There  are  no  bet- 
ter colonists,  and  indeed  the  Eiu'opeans  whom  the  last 
ninety  years  have  brought  have  been  mostly  of  excellent 
stocks,  superior  to  the  mid-European  races  that  have  lately 
inundated  the  United  States. 

Though  the  English  and  the  Dutch  form  distinct  social 
elements  which  are  not  yet  fused,  and  though  these  ele- 
ments are  now  politically  opposed,  there  is  no  social  antag- 
onism between  the  races.  The  Englishman  will  deride 
the  slowness  of  the  Dutchman,  the  Dutchman  may  dis- 
trust the  adroitness  or  fear  the  activity  of  the  English- 
man, but  neither  dislikes  or  avoids  the  other.  Neither 
enjoys,  or  even  pretends  to,  any  social  superiority,  and 
hence  neither  objects  to  marry  his  son  or  his  daughter 
to  a  member  of  the  other  race.    Both  rule,  in 

fairly  easy  circumstances ;  that  is  to  say,  there  are  few 
paupers,  and  still  fewer  rich  men.  Nearly  everybody  has 
enough,  and  till  lately  hardly  any  one  had  more  than 
enough.  Within  the  last  few  years,  however,  two  changes 
have  come.  The  diamond-mines  and  the  gold-mines  have 
given  vast  riches  to  a  small  number  of  persons,  some  half- 


SOCIAL  CHARACTERISTICS 


397 


dozen  or  less  of  whom  continue  to  live  in  the  Colony,  while 
the  others  have  returned  to  Europe.  These  great  fortunes 
are  a  disturbing  element,  giving  an  undue  influence  to 
their  possessors,  and  exciting  the  envy  or  emulation  of  the 
multitude.  The  other  change  is  the  growth  of  a  class  of 
people  resembling  the  "mean  whites"  of  the  Southern 
States  of  America,  loafers  and  other  lazy  or  shiftless  fel- 
lows who  hang  about  and  wiU  not  take  to  any  regular  work. 
I  heard  them  described  and  deplored  as  a  new  phenome- 
non, but  gather  that  they  are  not  yet  numerous.  Their 
appearance,  it  is  to  be  feared,  is  the  natural  result  of  that 
contempt  for  hard,  unskilled  labor  which  the  existence  of 
slavery  inspired  in  the  whites ;  and  they  may  hereafter 
constitute,  as  they  now  do  in  the  Southern  States  of  Amer- 
ica, the  section  of  the  population  specially  hostile  to  the 
negro,  and  therefore  dangerous  to  the  whole  community. 

To  an  EngHshman  or  American  who  knows  how  rapidly 
his  language  has  become  the  language  of  commerce  all 
over  the  world ;  how  it  has  almost  extinguished  the  ancient 
Celtic  tongues  in  Scotland  and  Ireland ;  how  quickly  in  the 
United  States  it  has  driven  Spanish  out  of  the  West,  and 
has  come  to  be  spoken  by  the  German,  Scandinavian,  and 
Slavonic  immigrants  whom  that  country  receives,  it  is 
surprising  to  find  that  Dutch  holds  its  ground  stubbornly 
in  South  Africa.  It  is  still  the  ordinary  language  of  prob- 
ably one  half  of  the  people  of  Cape  Colony  (although 
most  of  these  can  speak  some  English)  and  of  three 
foui'ths  of  those  in  the  Orange  Free  State,  though  of  a 
minority  in  Natal.  Englishmen  settling  in  the  interior 
usually  learn  it  for  the  sake  of  talking  to  their  Dutch 
neighbors,  who  are  slow  to  learn  English ;  and  English 
children  learn  it  from  the  colored  people,  for  the  colored 
people  talk  it  far  more  generally  than  they  do  English ;  in 


398 


IMPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


fact,  when  a  native  (except  in  one  of  the  coast  towns) 
speaks  a  European  tongue,  that  tongue  is  sure  to  be  Dutch. 
Good  observers  told  me  that  although  an  increasing  num- 
ber of  the  Africanders  (i.e.,  colonists  born  in  Africa)  of 
Dutch  origin  now  understand  English,  the  hold  of  Dutch 
is  so  strong  that  it  will  probably  continue  to  be  spoken 
in  the  Colony  for  two  generations  at  least.  Though  one 
must  caU  it  Dutch,  it  differs  widely  from  the  cultivated 
Dutch  of  Holland,  having  not  only  preserved  some  features 
of  that  language  as  spoken  two  centuries  ago,  but  having 
adopted  many  Kafir  or  Hottentot  words,  and  having  be- 
come vulgarized  into  a  dialect  which  is  almost  incapable 
of  expressing  abstract  thought  or  being  a  vehicle  for  any 
ideas  beyond  those  of  daily  life.  In  fact,  many  of  the 
Boers,  especially  in  the  Transvaal,  cannot  understand  a 
modern  Dutch  book,  hardly  even  a  newspaper.  This  de- 
fect might  give  English  a  great  advantage  if  the  Boers 
wished  to  express  abstract  ideas.  But  they  have  not  this 
wish,  for  they  have  no  abstract  ideas  to  express.  They 
are  an  eminently  concrete  people. 

The  rise  of  great  fortunes,  which  I  have  noted,  has  been 
too  recent  and  too  exceptional  a  phenomenon  to  affect 
the  generally  tranquil  and  even  tenor  of  South  African 
social  life.  Among  both  Dutch  and  English  months 
and  years  flow  smoothly  on.  Few  new  immigrants  enter 
the  rural  districts  or  the  smaller  towns ;  few  new  enter- 
prises are  started ;  few  ambitions  or  excitements  stir  the 
minds  of  the  people.  The  Witwatersrand  gold-field  is, 
of  course,  a  startling  exception,  but  it  is  an  exception  which 
tends  to  perpetuate  the  rule  ;  for,  by  drawing  off  the  more 
eager  and  restless  spirits,  it  has  left  the  older  parts  of  both 
the  colonies  more  placid  than  ever.  The  general  equality 
of  conditions  has  produced  a  freedom  from  assumption 


SOCIAL  CHARACTERISTICS 


399 


on  the  one  hand,  and  from  servihty  on  the  other,  and, 
indeed,  a  general  absence  of  snobbishness,  which  is  quite 
refreshing  to  the  European  visitor.  Manners  are  simple, 
and  being  simple,  they  are  good.  If  there  is  less  polish 
than  in  some  countries,  there  is  an  unaffected  heartiness 
and  kindliness.  The  Dutch  have  a  sense  of  personal  dig- 
nity which  respects  the  dignity  of  their  feUows,  and  which 
expresses  itself  in  direct  and  natm-al  forms  of  address. 
An  experienced  observer  dilated  to  me  on  the  high  level 
of  decorum  maintained  in  the  Cape  Parliament,  where 
scenes  of  disorder  are,  I  believe,  unknown,  and  violent 
language  is  rare.  One  expects  to  find  in  all  colonies  a 
sense  of  equality  and  an  element  of  sans  gene  in  social 
intercoiu-se.  But  one  usually  finds  also  more  roughness 
and  more  of  an  offhand,  impatient  way  of  treating  stran- 
gers than  is  visible  in  South  Africa.  This  may  be  partly 
due  to  the  fact  that  people  are  not  in  such  a  hurry  as  they 
are  in  most  new  countries.  They  have  plenty  of  time  for 
everything.  The  climate  disinclines  them  to  active  exer- 
tion. There  is  little  immigi-ation.  Trade,  except  in  the 
four  seaports,  is  not  brisk,  and  even  there  it  is  not  brisk 
in  the  American  sense  of  the  word.  The  slackness  of  the 
black  population,  which  has  to  be  employed  for  the  harder 
kinds  of  work,  reacts  upon  the  white  emploj^er.  I  have 
visited  no  new  English-speaking  country  where  one  so  little 
felt  the  strain  and  stress  of  modern  life.  This  feature  of 
South  African  society,  though  it  implies  a  slow  material 
development,  is  very  agreeable  to  the  visitor,  and  I  doubt 
if  it  be  really  an  injury  to  the  ultimate  progress  of  the 
country.  In  most  parts  of  North  America,  possibly  in 
AustraHa  also,  industrial  development  has  been  too  rapid, 
and  has  induced  a  nervous  excitability  and  eager  restless- 
ness of  temper  from  which  South  Africa  is  free.  Of  course, 


400 


BIPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


in  saying  this,  I  except  always  the  mining  districts,  and 
especially  the  Witwatersrand,  which  is  to  the  full  as  restless 
and  as  active  as  Cahf  ornia  or  Colorado. 

The  comparative  ease  of  life  disposes  the  English  part 
of  the  population  to  athletic  sports,  which  are  pursued 
with  almost  as  much  avidity  as  in  Australia.  Even  one 
who  thinks  that  in  England  the  passion  for  them  has  gone 
beyond  aU  reasonable  limits,  and  become  a  serious  injury 
to  education  and  to  the  taste  for  intellectual  pleasures, 
may  find  in  the  character  of  the  climate  a  justification  for 
the  devotion  to  cricket,  in  particular,  which  strikes  him  in 
South  Africa.  Now  that  game  has  become  scarce,  hunt- 
ing cannot  be  pursued  as  it  once  was,  and  young  people 
would  have  little  incitement  to  physical  exertion  in  the 
open  ail'  did  not  the  British  love  of  cricket  subsist  in  the 
schools  and  colleges.    Long  may  it  subsist ! 

The  social  conditions  I  have  been  describing  are  evi- 
dently unfavorable  to  the  development  of  Mterature  or 
science  or  art.  Art  has  scarcely  begun  to  exist.  Science 
is  represented  only  by  a  few  naturalists  in  government 
emplojTiient,  and  by  some  intelligent  amateur  observers. 
Reseai'ches  in  electricity  or  chemistry  or  biologj'  require 
nowadays  a  somewhat  elaborate  apparatus,  with  which 
few  private  persons  could  pro^dde  themselves,  and  which 
are  here  possessed  only  by  one  or  two  public  institutions. 
English  and  American  writers  have  hitherto  supplied  the 
intellectual  needs  of  the  people,  and  the  estabhshed  reputa- 
tion of  wi-iters  in  those  countries  makes  competition  diffi- 
cult to  a  new  colonial  author.  The  towns  are  too  small, 
and  their  inhabitants  too  much  occupied  in  commerce,  to 
create  groups  of  highly  educated  people,  capable  of  polish- 
ing, whetting,  and  stimulating  one  another's  intellects. 
There  are  few  large  libraries,  and  no  fully  equipped  univer- 


SOCIAL  CHARACTEEISTICS 


401 


sity  to  train  young  men  in  history  or  philosophy  or  econ- 
omics or  theology.  Accordingly,  few  books  are  composed 
or  published,  and,  so  far  as  I  know,  only  three  South  Afri- 
can writers  have  caught  the  ear  of  the  European  public. 
One  of  these  was  Robert  Pringle,  a  Scotchman,  whose 
poems,  written  sixty  or  seventy  years  ago,  possess  con- 
siderable merit,  and  one  of  which,  beginning  with  the 
line, 

Alone  in  the  desert  I  love  to  ride, 

remains  the  most  striking  picture  of  South  African  nature 
in  those  early  days  when  the  wilderness  was  still  filled  with 
wild  creatures.  Another,  Miss  Olive  Schreiner  (now  Mrs. 
Cronwi'ight-Schreiner),  has  attained  deserved  fame.  A 
third,  Mr.  Scully,  is  less  known  in  England,  but  his  little 
volume  of  "  Kafir  Tales  "  is  marked  by  much  graphic  power 
and  shows  insight  into  native  character. 

These  three  writers,  and  indeed  all  the  writers  of  merit, 
belong  to  the  English  or  Anglified  section  of  the  popula- 
tion. The  Dutch  section  is  practically  disqualified  by 
its  language  (which,  be  it  remembered,  is  not  the  lan- 
guage of  Holland,  but  a  debased  dialect)  from  literary 
composition,  even  were  it  otherwise  disposed  to  authorship. 
Literature  will  always,  I  think,  remain  English  in  char- 
acter, bearing  few  or  no  traces  of  the  Dutch  element  in  the 
people.  But  otherwise  things  are  likely  to  change  in  a  few 
years.  The  conditions  which  have  been  described  as  un- 
favorable to  intellectual  production  are  not  necessarily  per- 
manent, and  there  is  no  reason  why  the  Europeans  of  South 
Africa  should  not  in  due  time  emulate  their  kinsfolk  at 
home  or  in  North  America  in  literary  and  artistic  fertility. 
The  materials  for  imaginative  work,  whether  in  poetry  or 
in  prose,  lie  ready  to  their  hand.    The  scenery  deserves 

26 


402  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


some  great  native  landscape-painter,  and  such  a  genius 
will,  no  doubt,  one  day  arise. 

Journalism  has  now  everywhere  become,  in  point  of 
quantity,  the  most  important  part  of  literature.  The  South 
African  newspapers  impress  a  visitor  favorably.  Several 
of  them  are  written  with  great  ability-,  and  they  are  com- 
paratively free  from  that  violence'of  invective,  that  tawdi-i- 
ness  of  rhetoric,  and  that  proneness  to  fill  their  columns 
with  crimiQal  intelligence,  which  are  apt  to  be  charged 
against  the  press  in  some  other  new  countries.  No  jour- 
nal seems  to  exert  so  great  a  political  power  as  is  wielded 
by  several  of  the  AustraMan  dailies.  As  might  be  expected, 
the  press  is  chiefly  English,  that  language  ha\Tag  sixty- 
one  papers,  against  seventeen  printed  iu  Dutch  and  twenty 
three  in  both  languages. 

Although  the  dispersion  of  the  small  European  popula- 
tion over  an  exceedingly  wide  area  makes  it  difiBcult  to 
provide  elementaiy  schools  everjTvhere,  education  is, 
among  the  whites,  well  eared  for,  and  in  some  regions, 
such  as  the  Orange  Free  State,  the  Boer  element  is  just 
as  eager  for  it  as  is  the  English.  Neither  are  efficient 
secondary  schools  wanting.  That  which  is  wanting,  that 
which  is  urgently  needed  to  crown  the  educational  edifice, 
is  a  properly  equipped  teaching  university.  There  are  a 
number  of  colleges  to  pro^-ide  lectm-es,  and  the  Cape  Uni- 
versity holds  examinations  and  confers  degi'ees;  but  to 
erect  over  these  colleges  a  true  university  with  an  adequate 
teaching  staff  seems  to  be  as  difficult  an  enterprise  at  the 
Cape  as  it  has  proved  to  be  in  London,  where  twelve 
years  have  now  been  spent  in  vain  efforts  to  estabUsh 
a  teaching  university.  It  is  strange  to  find  that  in  a 
new  country,  where  the  different  religious  bodies  live  on 
good  terms  with  one  another,  one  of  the  chief  obstacles  in 


SOCIAL  CHARACTERISTICS 


403 


the  way  is  the  reluctance  of  two  of  the  existing  colleges, 
which  have  a  denominational  character,  to  have  an  insti- 
tution superior  to  them  set  up  by  the  state.  The  other 
obstacles  are  the  rivahy  of  the  eastern  province  with  the 
western,  in  which,  at  Cape  Town,  the  natui-al  seat  of  a 
university  would  be  found,  and  the  apathy  or  aversion  of 
the  Dutch  section  of  the  people.  Some  of  them  do  not 
care  to  spend  public  money  for  a  purpose  whose  value  they 
cannot  be  made  to  understand.  Others,  knowing  that  a 
university  would  necessarily  be  mainly  in  English  hands 
and  give  instruction  of  an  English  type,  fear  to  estabUsh 
what  would  become  another  Anglifjdng  influence.  Thus 
several  small  colleges  go  on,  each  with  inadequate  re- 
sources, and  the  Cape  youth  who  desires  to  obtain  a  first- 
rate  education  is  obliged  to  go  to  Europe  for  it.  He  cannot 
even  get  a  fuU  course  of  legal  instruction,  for  there  is  no 
complete  law  school.  This  is  so  far  good  that  it  takes  a 
certain  number  of  young  men  to  Europe  and  gives  them 
a  first-hand  knowledge  of  the  ideas  and  habits  of  the  Old 
World ;  but  many  who  cannot  afford  the  luxiuy  of  a  Euro- 
pean journey  and  residence  remain  without  the  kind  of  in- 
struction by  which  their  natural  gifts  would  enable  them  to 
profit,  and  the  intellectual  progress  of  the  country  suffers. 
Were  Cape  Colony  somewhere  in  the  United  States,  a 
millionaire  woidd  forthwith  step  in,  biiild  a  new  univer- 
sity, and  endow  it  with  a  few  millions  of  doUars.  But 
South  Africa  is  only  just  beginning  to  produce  great  for- 
tunes ;  so  the  best  hope  is  that  some  enlightened  and  tactful 
statesman  may,  by  disarming  the  suspicions  and  allaying 
the  jealousies  I  have  described,  succeed  in  uniting  the  ex- 
isting colleges,  and  add  to  their  scanty  revenues  an  ade- 
quate government  grant.  Of  this  there  seems  some  hope. 
But  the  jealousies  and  ambitions  which  those  who  control 


404 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


an  institution  feel  for  it  are  often  quite  as  tenacious  as  is 
the  selfishness  of  men  where  their  own  pockets  are  con- 
cerned; and  since  these  jealousies  have  a  superficial  air 
of  disinterestedness,  it  is  aU  the  more  hard  to  overcome 
them  by  the  pressure  of  public  opinion. 

One  other  intellectual  force  remains  to  be  mentioned— 
that  of  the  churches.  In  the  two  British  colonies  no  re- 
ligious body  receives  special  state  recognition  or  any 
grants  from  the  state.  All  are  on  an  equal  footing,  just 
as  in  Australia  and  in  North  America.  In  the  two  Boer 
republics  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church  is  in  a  certain  sense 
the  state  church.  In  the  Transvaal  it  is  recognized  as  such 
by  the  Grondwet  ("Fundamental  Law"),  and  receivesagov- 
ernment  subvention.  Members  of  other  churches  were  at 
one  time  excluded  from  the  suffrage  and  from  all  public 
offices,  and  even  now  Roman  CathoUcs  are  under  some 
disability.  In  the  Orange  Free  State  the  Dutch  Reformed 
Church  receives  pubhc  aid,  but  I  think  this  is  given,  to  a 
smaller  extent,  to  some  other  denominations  also,  and  no 
legal  inequalities  based  on  religion  exist.  In  these  two 
republics  nearly  the  whole  of  the  Boer  population,  and  in 
the  Free  State  a  part  even  of  the  English  population,  be- 
long to  the  Dutch  Reformed  communion,  which  is  Pres- 
bj-terian  in  government  and  Cal^inistic  in  theology.  In 
the  British  colonies  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
(Chui'ch  of  England)  comes  next  after  the  Dutch  Re- 
formed, which  is  much  the  strongest  denomination;  but 
the  Wesleyans  are  also  an  important  body,  and  there  are, 
of  course,  also  Congregational  and  Baptist  churches.  The 
Presbyterians  seem  to  be  less  numerous  (in  proportion  to 
the  population)  than  in  Canada  or  Australia,  not  merely 
because  the  Scottish  element  is  less  numerous,  but  also 
because  many  of  the  Scottish  settlers  joined  the  Dutch 


SOCIAL  CHARACTERISTICS 


405 


Reformed  Chureli  as  being  akin  to  their  own  in  polity  and 
doctrine.  The  comparative  paucity  of  Roman  Catholics  is 
due  to  the  paucity  of  Irish  immigrants.  These  bodies 
live  in  perfect  harmony  and  good  feeling  one  with  another, 
all  frankly  accepting  the  principle  of  equality,  none  claim- 
ing any  social  preeminence,  and  none,  so  far  as  I  could 
learn,  attempting  to  interfere  in  politics.  Both  the  bishops 
and  the  clergy  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  are, 
with  few  exceptions,  of  mai'ked  High-church  proclivities, 
which,  however,  do  not  appear  to  prevail  equally  among 
the  laity.  The  Dutch  Reformed  Church  has  been  troubled 
by  doubts  as  to  the  orthodoxy  of  many  of  its  younger 
pastors  who  have  been  educated  at  Leyden  or  Utrecht, 
and  for  a  time  it  preferred  to  send  candidates  for  the 
ministry  to  be  trained  at  Edinburgh,  whose  theological 
schools  inspired  less  distrust.  It  is  itself  in  its  turn  dis- 
trusted by  the  still  more  rigid  Calvinists  of  the  Transvaal. 

One  curious  feature  of  South  African  society  remains  to 
be  mentioned,  which  impressed  me  the  more  the  longer  I 
remained  in  the  country.  The  upper  stratum  of  that  so- 
ciety, consisting  of  the  well-to-do  and  best  educated  people, 
is  naturally  small,  because  the  whole  white  population  of 
the  towns  is  small,  there  being  only  four  towns  that  have 
more  than  ten  thousand  white  residents.  But  this  little 
society  is  virtually  one  society,  though  dispersed  in  spots 
hundreds  of  miles  from  one  another.  Natal  stands  rather 
apart,  and  has  very  little  to  do  either  socially  or  in  the  way 
of  business  with  Cape  Colony,  and  not  a  great  deal  even 
with  the  Transvaal.  So,  too,  the  four  or  five  towns  of  the 
eastern  province  of  Cape  Colony  form  a  group  somewhat 
detached,  and  though  the  "best  people  "in  each  of  them 
know  all  about  the  "  best  people  "  in  Cape  Town,  they  are 
not  in  close  touch  with  the  latter.    But  Cape  Town,  Kim- 

26* 


406  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


berley,  Bloemfoutein,  Johannesburg,  and  Pretoria,  the  five 
most  important  places  (excluding  the  Natal  towns),  are  for 
social  purposes  almost  one  city,  though  it  is  six  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  from  Cape  Town  to  Kimberley,  and  one  thousand 
mUes  from  Cape  Town  to  Johannesburg.  All  the  persons 
of  consequence  in  these  places  know  one  another  and  fol- 
low one  another's  doings.  All  mix  frequently,  because 
the  Cape  Town  people  are  apt  to  be  called  by  business  to 
the  inland  cities,  and  the  residents  of  the  inland  cities 
come  to  Cape  Town  for  sea  air  in  the  simimer,  or  to  em- 
bark thence  for  Europe.  Where  distances  are  great,  men 
think  little  of  long  journeys,  and  the  fact  that  Cape  Town 
is  practically  the  one  port  of  entrance  and  departure  for 
the  interior,  so  far  as  passengers  are  concerned,  keeps  it 
in  constant  relations  with  the  leading  men  of  the  interior, 
and  gives  a  sort  of  unity  to  the  upper  society  of  the  whole 
country,  which  finds  no  parallel  in  any  other  part  of  the 
world.  Johannesburg  and  Cape  Town  in  particular  are, 
for  social  purposes,  in  closer  touch  with  each  other  than 
Liverpool  is  with  Manchester  or  New  York  with  Phila- 
delphia. When  one  turns  to  the  map  it  looks  a  long  way 
from  the  Cape  to  the  Rand ;  but  between  these  places  most 
of  the  country  is  a  desert,  and  there  is  only  one  spot, 
Bloemfontein,  that  deserves  to  be  called  a  town.  So  I 
will  once  more  beg  the  reader  to  remember  that  though 
South  Africa  is  more  than  half  as  large  as  Europe,  it  is, 
measured  by  population,  a  very  small  countrj^ 


CHAPTER  XXiy 


POLITICS  IN  THE  TWO  BRITISH  COLONIES 

THE  circumstances  of  tlie  two  South  African  colonies 
are  so  dissimilar  from  those  of  the  British  colonies  in 
North  America  and  in  Australasia  as  to  have  impressed 
upon  their  politics  a  very  different  character.  I  do  not 
propose  to  describe  the  present  political  situation,  for  it 
may  have  changed  before  these  pages  are  published.  It 
is  only  of  the  permanent  causes  which  give  their  color  to 
the  public  life  and  poHtical  issues  of  the  country  that  I 
shall  speak,  and  that  concisely. 

The  frame  of  government  is,  in  Cape  Colony  as  well  as 
in  Natal,  essentially  the  same  as  in  the  other  self-govern- 
ing British  colonies.  There  is  a  governor,  appointed  by  the 
home  government,  and  responsible  to  it  only,  who  plays 
the  part  which  belongs  to  the  Crown  in  Great  Britain. 
He  is  the  nominal  head  of  the  executive,  summoning  and 
proroguing  the  legislature,  appointing  and  dismissing 
ministers,  and  exercising,  upon  the  advice  of  his  ministers, 
the  prerogative  of  pardon.  There  is  a  cabinet  consisting 
of  the  heads  of  the  chief  administrative  departments,  who 
are  the  practical  executive  of  the  Colony,  and  are  respon- 
sible to  the  legislature,  in  which  they  sit,  and  at  whose 
pleasure  they  hold  their  offices.    There  is  a  legislature 

407 


408  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


consisting  of  two  houses— an  Assembl}'  and  a  Legislative 
Council.  In  Cape  Colony  (for  of  tte  arrangements  in 
Natal  I  have  spoken  in  a  previous  chapter)  both  houses 
are  elected  on  the  same  franchise,— a  low  one,— and  ever}- 
citizen  is  eligible  for  membership  in  either;  but  the  dis- 
tricts for  the  election  of  members  of  the  CouncU  are  much 
larger,  and  therefore  fewer,  than  those  for  the  Assembly, 
so  the  former  body  is  a  small  and  the  latter  a  compara- 
tively numerous  one.  The  rights  and  powers  of  both 
houses  are  theoretically  the  same,  save  that  money  biUs 
originate  in  the  Assembly ;  but  the  Assembly  is  far  more 
powerful,  for  the  ministry  holds  ofi&ce  only  so  long  as  it 
has  the  support  of  a  majority  in  that  body,  whereas  it 
need  not  regard  a  hostile  vote  in  the  Council.  Ministers 
have  the  right  of  speaking  in  both  houses,  but  can,  of 
course,  vote  only  in  the  one  of  which  they  are  members  by 
popular  election.  If  there  happens  not  to  be  a  minister 
who  has  a  seat  in  the  Council  (as  is  the  case  at  present), 
it  is  usual  for  the  cabinet  to  allot  one  to  be  present  in  and 
look  after  that  chamber  for  the  day. 

This  cabinet  system,  as  it  is  called,  works  pretty  smoothly, 
on  lines  similar  to  that  English  original  whence  it  is  copied. 
The  most  interesting  peculiarity  is  the  Cape  method  of 
forming  the  smaller  house.  In  England  the  Upper  House 
is  composed  of  hereditary  members ;  in  the  Canadian  Con- 
federation, of  members  nominated  for  life — both  of  them 
systems  which  are  quite  indefensible  in  theory.  Here, 
however,  we  find  the  same  plan  as  that  which  prevails  in 
the  States  of  the  North  American  Union,  all  of  which  have 
senates  elected  on  the  same  franchise,  and  for  the  same 
term,  as  the  larger  house,  but  in  more  extensive  districts, 
so  as  to  make  the  number  of  members  of  the  second 
chamber  smaller.  Regarding  the  merits  of  the  Cape  scheme 
I  heard  different  views  expressed.  Nobody  seemed  opposed 


POLITICS  IN  THE  TWO  BRITISH  COLONIES  409 


in  principle  to  the  division  of  the  legislature  into  two  houses, 
but  many  condemned  the  existing  Council  as  being  usually 
composed  of  second-rate  men,  and  apt  to  be  obstructive  in 
its  tendencies.  Others  thought  that  the  Council  was  a  use- 
ful part  of  the  scheme  of  government,  because  it  interposed 
some  delay  in  legislation  and  gave  time  for  reflection 
and  further  debate.  One  point  came  out  pretty  clearly. 
No  difficulty  seems  to  arise  from  having  two  popularly 
elected  houses  equally  entitled  to  control  the  administra- 
tion, for  custom  has  settled  that  the  Assembly  or  larger 
house  is  that  whose  vote  determines  the  Life  of  a  ministry. 
But  it  follows  from  this  circumstance  that  all  the  most 
able  and  ambitious  men  desire  a  seat  in  the  more  power- 
ful chamber,  leaving  the  smaller  house  to  those  of  less 
mark.  This  is  the  exact  reverse  of  what  has  happened  in 
the  United  States,  where  a  seat  in  the  Senate  is  more  de- 
sired than  one  in  the  House ;  but  it  is  a  natm-al  result  of 
the  diverse  arrangements  of  the  two  countries,  for  in  the 
federal  government  the  Senate  has  some  powers  which 
the  House  of  Representatives  does  not  enjoy,  while  in  the 
several  States  of  the  Union,  although  the  powers  of  the 
two  houses  are  almost  the  same,  the  smaller  number  of  each 
Senate  secures  for  each  Senator  somewhat  greater  impor- 
tance than  a  member  of  the  larger  body  enjoys.  The 
Cape  Colony  plan  of  letting  a  minister  speak  in  both  houses 
works  very  well,  and  may  deserve  to  be  imitated  in  Eng- 
land, where  the  fact  that  the  head  of  a  department  can 
explain  his  'poHcy  only  to  his  own  House  has  sometimes 
caused  inconvenience. 

So  much  for  the  machinery.  Now  let  us  note  the  chief 
points  in  which  the  circumstances  of  Cape  Colony  and  of 
Natal  (for  in  these  respects  both  colonies  are  alike)  differ 
from  those  of  the  other  self-governing  colonies  of  Britain. 

The  population  is  not  homogeneous  as  regards  race,  but 


410 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


consists  of  two  stocks,  English  and  Duteli.  These  stocks 
are  not,  as  in  Canada,  locally  separate,  but  dwell  inter- 
mixed, though  the  Dutch  element  predominates  in  the 
■western  province  and  in  the  interior  generally,  the  Eng- 
lish in  the  eastern  province  and  at  the  Kimberley  diamond- 
fields. 

The  population  is  homogeneous  as  regards  reUgion,  for 
nearly  all  are  Protestants,  and  Protestants  of  much  the 
same  type.  Race  difference  has  fortunately  not  been  com- 
plicated, as  in  Canada,  by  ecclesiastical  antagonisms. 

The  population  is  homogeneous  as  respects  material  in- 
terests, for  it  is  wholly  agricultural  and  pastoral,  except  a 
few  merchants  and  artisans  in  the  seaports,  and  a  few 
miners  at  Kimberley  and  in  Namaqualand.  Four  fifths 
of  it  are  practically  rural,  for  the  interests  of  the  small 
towns  are  identical  with  those  of  the  surrounding  coun- 
try. 

The  population  is  not  only  rural,  but  scattered  more 
thinly  over  a  vast  area  than  in  any  other  British  colony, 
except  northwestern  Canada  and  parts  of  Australasia. 
In  Natal  there  are  only  about  two  white  men  to  the  square 
mile,  and  in  Cape  Colony  less  than  two.  Nor  is  this 
sparseness  incidental,  as  in  North  America,  to  the  early 
days  of  settlement.  It  is  due  to  a  physical  condition,— the 
thinness  of  the  pasture,— which  is  Hkely  to  continue. 

Below  the  white  citizens,  who  are  the  ruling  race,  there 
lies  a  thick  stratum  of  colored  population,  numerically 
larger,  and  Likely  to  remain  so,  because  it  performs  all  the 
unskilled  labor  of  the  country.  Here  is  a  condition  which, 
though  present  in  some  of  the  Southern  States  of  America, 
is  fortunately  absent  from  all  the  self-governing  colonies 
of  Britain,  and  indeed  caused  Jamaica  to  be,  some  time 
ago,  withdrawn  from  that  category. 


POLITICS  IN  THE  TWO  BEITISH  COLONIES  411 


The  conjunction  of  these  circumstances  marks  off  South 
Africa  as  a  very  peculiar  country,  where  we  may  expect  to 
find  a  correspondingly  peculiar  political  situation.  Com- 
paring it  to  other  states,  we  may  say  that  the  Cape  and 
Natal  resemble  Canada  in  the  fact  that  there  are  two  Euro- 
pean races  present,  and  resemble  the  Southern  States  of 
America  in  having  a  large  mass  of  colored  people  beneath 
the  whites.  But  South  Africa  is  in  other  respects  unlike 
both,  and  although  situated  in  the  southern  hemisphere, 
it  does  not  resemble  Australia. 

Now  let  us  see  how  these  circumstances  have  determined 
the  political  issues  that  have  arisen  in  Cape  Colony. 

Certain  issues  are  absent  which  exist  not  only  in  Europe 
and  the  United  States,  but  also  in  Australia  and  in  Canada. 
There  is  no  antagonism  of  rich  and  poor,  because  there  are 
very  few  poor  and  still  fewer  rich.  There  is  no  working- 
man's  or  labor  party,  because  so  few  white  men  are  em- 
ployed in  handicrafts.  There  is  no  sociahst  movement, 
nor  is  any  likely  to  arise,  because  the  mass  of  workers,  to 
whom  elsewhere  socialism  addresses  itself,  is  mainly  com- 
posed of  black  people,  and  no  white  would  dream  of  collec- 
tivism for  the  benefit  of  blacks.  Thus  the  whole  group  of 
labor  questions,  which  bulks  so  largely  in  modern  indus- 
trial states,  is  practically  absent,  and  replaced  by  a  different 
set  of  class  questions,  to  be  presently  mentioned. 

There  is  no  regularly  organized  Protectionist  party,  nor 
is  the  protection  of  native  industry  a  living  issue  of  the 
first  magnitude.  The  farmers  and  ranchmen  of  Cape  Col- 
ony no  doubt  desire  to  have  a  tai'iff  on  food-stuffs  that  will 
help  them  to  keep  up  prices,  and  they  have  got  one.  But 
it  is  not  a  very  high  tariff,  and  as  direct  taxation  is  diffi- 
cult to  raise  in  a  new  country  with  a  scattered  population, 
the  existing  tariff,  which  averages  twelve  and  a  half  per 


412  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


cent,  ad  valorem,  may  be  defended  as  needed,  at  least  to  a 
large  extent,  for  tlie  purposes  of  revenue.  Natal  has  a 
lower  tariff,  and  is  more  favorable  in  principle  to  free- 
trade  doctrine.  Manufactures  have  been  so  sparingly  de- 
veloped in  both  colonies  that  neither  employers  nor  work- 
men have  begun  to  call  for  high  duties  against  foreign 
goods.  Here,  therefore,  is  another  field  of  pohcy,  impor- 
tant in  North  America  and  in  Austraha,  which  has  given 
rise  to  little  controversy  in  South  Africa. 

As  there  is  no  established  church,  and  nearly  all  the 
people  are  Protestants,  there  are  no  ecclesiastical  questions, 
nor  is  the  progress  of  education  let  and  hindered  by  the 
claims  of  sects  to  have  their  respective  creeds  taught  at 
the  expense  of  the  state. 

Neither  are  there  any  land  questions,  such  as  those  which 
have  arisen  in  Australia,  for  there  has  been  land  enough 
for  those  who  want  to  have  it,  while  few  agricultural  im- 
migrants arrive  to  increase  the  demand.  Moreover,  though 
the  landed  estates  are  large,  their  owners  are  not  rich,  and 
excite  no  envy  by  their  possession  of  a  profitable  monop- 
oly. If  any  controversy  regarding  natural  resources 
arises,  it  will  probably  turn  on  the  taxation  of  minerals. 
Some  have  suggested  that  the  state  should  appropriate  to 
itseM  a  substantial  share  of  the  profits  made  out  of  the 
diamond  and  other  mines,  and  the  fact  that  most  of  those 
profits  are  sent  home  to  shareholders  in  Em-ope  might  be 
expected  to  make  the  suggestion  popular.  Nevertheless, 
the  suggestion  has  not,  so  far,  "caught  on,"  to  use  a 
familiar  expression,  partly,  perhaps,  because  Cape  Colony, 
drawing  suflBcient  income  from  its  tariff  and  its  railways, 
has  not  found  it  necessary  to  hunt  for  other  sources  of 
revenue. 

Lastly,  there  are  no  constitutional  questions.  The 


POLITICS  IN  THE  TWO  BRITISH  COLONIES  413 

suffrage  is  so  wide  as  to  admit  nearly  all  the  whites,  and 
there  is,  of  course,  no  desire  to  go  lower  and  admit  more 
blacks.  The  machinery  of  government  is  deemed  satis- 
factory ;  at  any  rate,  one  hears  of  no  proposals  to  change  it, 
and,  as  will  be  seen  presently,  there  is  not  in  either  colony 
a  wish  to  alter  the  relations  now  subsisting  between  it 
and  the  mother  country. 

The  reader  may  suppose  that  since  all  these  grounds  of 
controversy,  familiar  to  Europe,  and  some  of  them  now  un- 
happily familiar  to  the  new  democracies  also,  are  absent. 
South  Africa  enjoys  the  political  tranquillity  of  a  country 
where  there  are  no  factions,  and  the  only  question  is  how 
to  find  the  men  most  able  to  promote  that  economic 
development  which  aU  unite  in  desiring.  This  is  by  no 
means  the  case.  In  South  Africa  the  part  filled  elsewhere 
by  constitutional  questions,  and  industrial  questions,  and 
ecclesiastical  questions,  and  currency  questions,  is  filled  by 
race  questions  and  color  questions.  Color  questions  have 
been  discussed  in  a  previous  chapter.  They  turn  not,  as  in 
the  Southern  States  of  America,  upon  the  political  rights  of 
the  black  man  (for  on  this  subject  the  ruling  whites  are  in 
both  colonies  unanimous),  but  upon  land  rights  and  the 
regulation  of  native  labor.  They  are  not  at  this  moment 
actual  and  pungent  issues,  but  they  are  in  the  background 
of  every  one's  mind,  and  the  attitude  of  each  man  to  them 
goes  far  to  determine  his  political  sympathies.  One  can- 
not say  that  there  exist  pro-native  or  anti-native  parties, 
but  the  Dutch  are  by  tradition  more  disposed  than  the 
English  to  treat  the  native  severely  and,  as  they  express 
it,  keep  him  in  his  place.  It  is  always  by  Englishmen  that 
the  advocacy  of  the  native  case  is  undertaken,  yet  many 
Englishmen  share  the  Dutch  feeling.  In  Natal  both  races 
are  equally  anti-Indian. 


414 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


The  race  question  among  the  whites,  that  is  to  say,  the 
rivaby  of  Dutch  and  Enghsh,  would  raise  no  practical 
issue  were  Cape  Colony  an  island  in  the  ocean,  for  there 
is  complete  poHtical  and  social  equality  between  the  two 
stocks,  and  the  material  interests  of  the  Dutch  farmer  are 
the  same  as  those  of  his  Enghsh  neighbor.  It  is  the  exis- 
tence of  a  contiguous  foreign  state,  the  South  African 
RepubUc,  that  sharpens  Dutch  feeling.  The  Boers  who 
remained  in  Cape  Colony  and  in  Natal  have  always  retained 
theu'  sentiment  of  kinship  with  those  who  went  out  in  the 
Great  Trek  of  1836,  or  who  moved  northward  from  Natal 
into  the  Transvaal  after  the  annexation  of  Natal  in  1842. 
Many  of  them  are  connected  by  family  ties  with  the 
inhabitants  of  the  two  republics,  and  are  proud  of  the 
achievements  of  theii*  kinsfolk  against  Dingaan  and 
Mosilikatze,  and  of  the  courage  displayed  at  Laing's 
Nek  and  Majuba  Hill  against  the  British.  They  resent 
keenly  any  attempt  to  trench  upon  the  independence  of 
the  Transvaal,  while  most  of  the  English  do  not  conceal 
their  wish  to  bring  that  state  into  a  South  African  Con- 
federation, if  possible  under  the  British  flag.  The  minis- 
tries and  legislatures  of  the  two  British  colonies,  it  need 
hardly  be  said,  have  no  official  relations  with  the  two  Dutch 
republics,  because,  according  to  the  constitution  of  the 
British  empire,  such  relations,  like  all  other  foreign  rela- 
tions, belong  to  the  Crown,  and  the  Crown  is  ad^^sed  by 
the  British  cabinet  at  home.  In  South  Africa  the  Crown 
is  represented  for  the  purpose  of  these  relations  by  the 
High  Commissioner,  who  is  not  responsible  in  any  way  to 
the  colonial  legislatures,  and  is  not  even  required  to  con- 
sult the  colonial  cabinet,  for  his  functions  as  High  Com- 
missioner for  South  Africa  are  deemed  to  be  distinct  from 
those  which  he  has  as  Governor  of  Cape  Colony.  Matters 


POLITICS  IN  THE  TWO  BRITISH  COLONIES  415 


touching  tlie  two  republics  and  their  relation  to  the  two 
colonies  are,  accordingly,  entirely  outside  the  sphere  of 
action  of  the  colonial  legislatures,  which  have,  in  strict 
theory,  no  right  to  pass  resolutions  regarding  them.  In 
point  of  fact,  however,  the  Cape  Assembly  frequently  does 
debate  and  pass  resolutions  on  these  matters ;  nor  is  this 
practice  disapproved,  for,  as  the  sentiments  of  the  Colony 
are  an  important  factor  in  determining  the  action  of  the 
home  government,  it  is  well  that  the  British  cabinet  and 
the  High  Commissioner  should  possess  such  a  means  of 
gaging  those  sentiments.  The  same  thing  happens  with 
regard  to  any  other  question  between  Britain  and  a  foreign 
power  which  affects  the  two  colonies.  Questions  with 
Germany  or  Portugal,  questions  as  to  the  acquisition  of 
territoiy  in  South  Central  Africa,  would  also  be  discussed 
in  the  colonial  legislatures,  just  as  those  of  Australia  some 
years  ago  complained  warmly  of  the  action  of  France  in  the 
New  Hebrides.  And  thus  it  comes  to  pass  that  though 
the  governments  and  legislatm-es  of  the  colonies  have  in 
strictness  nothing  to  do  with  foreign  policy,  foreign  policy 
has  had  much  to  do  with  the  formation  of  parties  at  the 
Cape. 

Now  as  to  the  parties  themselves.  Hitherto  I  have 
spoken  of  Natal  and  the  Cape  together,  because  their  con- 
ditions are  generally  similar,  though  the  Dutch  element  is 
far  stronger  in  the  latter  than  in  the  former.  In  what 
follows  I  speak  of  the  Cape  only,  for  political  parties  have 
not  had  time  to  grow  up  in  Natal,  where  responsible  gov- 
ernment dates  from  1893.  In  the  earlier  days  of  the  Cape 
legislatui'e  parties  were  not  strongly  marked,  though  they 
tended  to  coincide  with  the  race  distinction  between  Dutch 
and  English,  because  the  western  province  was  chiefly 
Dutch,  and  the  eastern  chiefly  Enghsh,  and  there  was  a  cer- 


416 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


tain  rivalry  or  antagonism  between  these  two  main  divisions 
of  the  country.  The  Dutch  element  was,  moreover,  wholly 
agricultural  and  pastoral,  the  English  partly  mercantile ; 
so,  when  any  issue  arose  between  these  two  interests,  it 
generally  corresponded  with  the  di\dsion  of  races.  Political 
organization  was  chiefly  in  English  hands,  because  the  co- 
lonial Dutch  had  not  j)0ssessed  representative  government, 
whereas  the  English  brought  their  home  habits  with  them. 
However,  do-wn  till  1880  parties  remained  in  an  amorphous 
or  fluid  condition,  being  largely  affected  by  the  influence  of 
individual  leaders ;  and  the  Dutch  section  of  the  electorate 
was  hardly  conscious  of  its  strength.  In  the  end  of  that 
year,  the  rising  in  the  Transvaal,  and  the  war  of  indepen- 
dence which  followed,  powerfully  stimulated  Dutch  feeling, 
and  led  to  the  formation  of  the  Africander  Bond,  a  league 
or  association  appealing  nominally  to  African,  but  practi- 
cally to  Boer,  patriotism.  It  was  not  anti-English  in  the 
sense  of  hostility  to  the  British  connection,  any  more  than 
was  the  French  party  in  Lower  Canada  at  the  same  time, 
but  it  was  based  not  only  on  the  solidarity  of  the  Boer  race 
over  all  South  Africa,  but  also  on  the  doctrine  that  Afri- 
canders must  think  of  Africa  first,  and  see  that  the  country 
was  governed  in  accordance  with  local  sentiment  rather 
than  on  British  lines  or  with  a  view  to  British  interests. 
Being  Dutch,  the  Bond  became  naturally  the  rui-al  or  agri- 
cultural and  pastoral  party,  and  therewith  inclined  to  a  pro- 
tective tariff  and  to  stringent  legislation  in  native  matters. 
Such  anti-English  tint  as  this  association  originally  wore 
tended  to  fade  when  the  Transvaal  troubles  receded  into 
the  distance,  and  when  it  was  perceived  that  the  British 
government  became  more  and  more  disposed  to  leave  the 
Colony  to  manage  its  own  affairs.  And  this  was  still 
more  the  case  after  the  rise  to  power  of  Mr.  Cecil  Rhodes, 


POLITICS  IN  THE  TWO  BRITISH  COLONIES  417 

who,  while  receiving  the  support  of  the  Bond  and  the 
Dutch  party  generally,  was  known  to  be  also  a  strong  im- 
perialist, eager  to  extend  the  range  of  British  power  over 
the  continent.  At  the  same  time  the  attachment  of  the 
colonial  Dutch  to  the  Transvaal  cooled  down  under  the 
imfriendly  policy  of  President  Kruger,  whose  government 
imposed  heavy  import  duties  on  their  food-stuffs,  and 
denied  to  their  youth  the  opportunities  of  obtaining  posts 
in  the  service  of  the  South  African  Republic,  preferring 
to  fetch  Dutch-speaking  men  from  Holland,  when  it 
could  have  had  plenty  of  capable  people  from  the  Cape 
who  spoke  the  tongue  and  knew  the  ways  of  the  country. 
Thus  the  embers  of  Dutch  and  English  antagonism  seemed 
to  be  growing  cold  when  they  were  suddenly  fanned  again 
into  a  flame  by  the  fresh  Transvaal  troubles  of  December, 
1895,  which  caused  the  resignation  of  Mr.  Rhodes,  and  the 
severance  from  him  of  his  Dutch  supporters.  Too  little 
time  has  elapsed  since  those  events  to  make  it  possible  to 
predict  how  parties  may  reshape  themselves,  nor  is  it  any 
part  of  my  plan  to  deal  with  current  politics.  Feeling 
still  runs  high,  but  it  has  not  gone  so  far  as  to  interrupt 
the  previously  friendly  social  relations  of  the  races,  and 
there  are  good  grounds  for  hoping  that  within  a  few 
months  or  years  mutual  confidence  will  be  restored. 

So  far  as  I  could  ascertain,  both  local  government  and 
central  government  are  in  the  two  colonies  pure  and 
honest.  The  Judiciary  is  above  all  suspicion.  The  civil 
service  is  managed  on  English  principles,  there  being  no 
elective  ofl&ces,  and  nothing  resembling  what  is  called  the 
"  caucus  system  "  seems  to  have  grown  up.  There  are  in 
the  Cape  legislatm*e  some  few  members  supposed  to  be 
"low-toned"  and  open  to  influence  by  the  prospect  of 
material  gain,  but,  though  I  heard  of  occasional  jobbing, 

27 


418  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


I  heard  of  notlung  amounting  to  corruption.  Elections 
are  said  to  be  free  from  bribery,  but  as  they  have  seldom 
excited  any  keen  interest,  this  point  of  superiority  to  most 
countries  need  not  be  ascribed  to  moral  causes. 

Reviewing  the  course  of  Cape  politics  during  the  thirty 
years  of  responsible  government,  that  course  appears 
smooth  when  compared  with  the  parallel  current  of  events 
in  the  Australian  colonies.  There  have  been  few  consti- 
tutional crises,  and  no  exciting  struggles  over  pui-ely 
domestic  issues.  This  is  due  not  merely  to  the  absence 
of  certain  causes  of  strife,  but  also  to  the  temper  of  the 
people,  and  their  thin  dispersion  over  a  vast  territory. 
In  large  town  populations,  excitement  grows  by  the  sym- 
pathy of  numbers ;  out  in  South  Africa  it  is  hard,  except  in 
five  or  six  places,  to  gather  a  public  meeting  of  even  three 
hundred  citizens.  The  Dutch  are  tardy,  cautious,  and  re- 
served. The  doggedness  of  their  ancestors  who  resisted 
Philip  II  of  Spain  lives  in  them  stni.  They  have  a  slow, 
tenacious  intensity,  like  that  of  a  forest  fire,  which  smolders 
long  among  the  prostrate  trunks  before  it  bursts  into  flame. 
But  they  ai'e,  except  when  deeply  stu'red,  conservative  and 
slow  to  move.  They  dislike  change  so  much  as  to  be  un- 
willing to  change  their  representatives  or  their  ministers. 
A  Cape  statesman  told  me  that  the  Dutch  members  of  the 
Assembly  would  often  say  to  bim  :  "  We  think  you  wrong  in 
this  instance,  and  we  ai-e  going  to  vote  against  you,  but  we 
don't  want  to  turn  you  out;  stay  on  in  oflBee  as  before." 
So  President  Kruger  observed  to  me,  in  commenting  on  the 
frequent  changes  of  government  in  England :  '•'  When  we 
have  found  an  ox  who  makes  a  good  leader  of  the  team, 
we  keep  him  there,  instead  of  shifting  the  cattle  about  in 
the  hope  of  finding  a  better  one  " ;  and  in  saying  this  he 
expressed  the  feeUngs  and  habits  of  his  race.    To  an  Eng- 


POLITICS  IN  THE  TWO  BRITISH  COLONIES  419 

lishman  they  seem  to  want  that  interest  in  politics  for  its 
own  sake  which  marks  not  only  the  English  (and  stUl 
more  the  Irish)  at  home,  but  also  the  English  stock  in 
North  America  and  Australia.  But  this  very  fact  makes 
them  all  the  more  fierce  and  stubborn  when  some  issue 
arises  which  stirs  their  inmost  mind,  and  it  is  a  fact  to  be 
remembered  by  those  who  have  to  govern  them.  The 
things  they  care  most  about  are  their  religion,  their  race 
ascendancy  over  the  blacks,  and  their  Dutch-African 
nationality  as  represented  by  their  kinsfolk  in  the  two 
republics.  The  first  of  these  has  never  been  tampered 
with ;  the  two  latter  have  been  at  the  bottom  of  all  the 
serious  difficulties  that  have  arisen  between  them  and  the 
English.  That  which  at  this  moment  excites  them  and 
forms  the  crucial  issue  in  Cape  politics  is  the  strained 
condition  of  things  which  exists  in  the  Transvaal.  I 
propose  in  the  following  chapter  to  explain  how  that  con- 
dition came  about,  and  to  sketch  its  sahent  features. 


CHAPTER  XXV 


THE  SITUATION  IN  THE  TRANSVAAL  BEFORE  THE 
RISING  OF  1895 

THE  agitation  at  Johannesburg,  "which  Dr.  Jameson's 
expedition  turned  into  a  rising,  took  place  in  De- 
cember, 1895.  I  spent  some  time  in  Pretoria  and  Johan- 
nesburg in  the  preceding  month,  and  had  good  opportu- 
nities of  observing  the  symptoms  of  pohtical  excitement  and 
gaging  the  tendencies  at  work  which  were  so  soon  to  break 
out  and  fix  the  eyes  of  the  world  upon  the  Witwatersrand. 
The  situation  was  a  very  singular  one,  without  parallel  in 
history ;  and  though  I  did  not  know  that  the  catastrophe 
was  so  near  at  hand,  it  was  easy  to  see  that  a  conflict  must 
come  and  would  prove  momentous  to  South  Africa.  Of 
this  situation  as  it  presented  itself  to  a  spectator  who  had 
no  personal  interest  involved,  and  had  the  advantage  of 
hearing  both  sides,  I  propose  to  give  some  account  in  the 
present  chapter. 

To  comprehend  the  position  of  the  Transvaal  Boers  one 
must  know  something  of  their  history.  From  the  brief 
sketch  of  it  given  in  earlier  chapters  (Chapters  XI  and 
XII)  the  reader  will  have  gathered  how  unlike  they  are  to 
any  European  people  or  to  the  people  of  the  United  States. 
Severed  from  Europe  and  its  influences  two  hundred  years 

420 


THE  TRANSVAAL  BEFORE  THE  RISING  OF  1895  421 


ago,  they  have,  in  some  of  the  elements  of  modern  civili- 
zation, gone  back  rather  than  forward.  They  are  a  half- 
nomad  race,  pasturing  their  flocks  and  herds  over  the  vast 
spaces  of  what  is  stiU  a  wilderness,  and  migrating  in  their 
wagons  from  the  higher  to  the  lower  pastures  according 
to  the  sea'son  of  the  year— 

Omnia  secum 

Armentarius  Af  er  agit,  tectiunque  laremque 

Armaque,  Amyelffiiiinque  canem,  Cressamque  pharetram. 

Living  entirely  in  the  open  air,  and  mostly  in  the  saddle, 
they  are  strangely  ignorant  and  backward  in  all  their  ideas. 
They  have  no  literature  and  very  few  newspapers.  Their 
rehgion  is  the  Dutch  and  Huguenot  Calvinism  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  rigid  and  stern,  hostile  to  all  new  light,  im- 
bued with  the  spirit  of  the  Old  Testament  rather  than  of 
the  New.  They  dislike  and  despise  the  Kafirs,  whom  they 
have  regarded  as  Israel  may  have  regarded  the  Amalek- 
ites,  and  whom  they  have  treated  with  equal  severity. 
They  hate  the  English  also,  who  are  to  them  the  hereditary 
enemies  that  conquered  them  at  the  Cape ;  that  drove  them 
out  into  the  wilderness  in  1836  ;  that  annexed  their  repub- 
lic in  1877,  and  thereafter  broke  the  promises  of  self-gov- 
ernment made  at  the  time  of  the  annexation ;  that  stopped 
their  expansion  on  the  west  by  occupying  Bechuanaland, 
and  on  the  north  by  occupying  Matabililand  and  Mashona- 
land ;  and  that  are  now,  as  they  believe,  plotting  to  find 
some  pretext  for  overthrowing  their  independence.  Their 
usual  term  (when  they  talk  among  themselves)  for  an  Eng- 
lishman is  "rotten  egg."  This  hatred  is  mingled  with  a 
contempt  for  those  whom  they  defeated  at  Laing's  Nek  and 
Majuba  Hill,  and  with  a  fear  born  of  the  sense  that  the  Eng- 
lish are  their  superiors  in  knowledge,  in  activity,  and  in 
statecraft.  It  is  always  hard  for  a  nation  to  see  the  good 

27* 


422  BIPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


qualities  of  its  rivals  and  tlie  strong  points  of  its  opponents' 
case ;  but  ■with  the  Boers  the  difficulty  is  all  the  greater  be- 
cause they  know  little  or  nothing  of  the  modern  world  and 
of  international  politics.  Two  centuries  of  solitary  pastoral 
life  have  not  only  given  them  an  aversion  for  commerce, 
for  industi'ial  pui'suits,  and  for  finance,  but  an  absolute 
incapacity  for  such  occupations,  so  that  when  gold  was 
discovered  in  their  country,  they  did  not  even  attempt  to 
work  it,  but  were  content  to  sell,  usually  for  a  price  far 
below  its  value,  the  laud  where  the  gold-reefs  lay,  and 
move  off  with  the  proceeds  to  resume  elsewhere  their  pas- 
toral life.  They  have  the  vii'tues  appropriate  to  a  simple 
society.  They  are  brave,  good-natui-ed,  hospitable,  faith- 
ful to  one  another,  generally  pure  in  their  domestic  life, 
seldom  touched  by  avarice  or  ambition.  But  the  corrup- 
tion of  their  legislature  shows  that  it  is  rather  to  the  ab- 
sence of  temptation  than  to  any  superior  strength  of  moral 
principles  that  these  merits  have  been  due.  For  pohtics 
they  have  little  taste  or  gift.  Pohtics  can  flourish  only 
where  people  are  massed  together,  and  the  Boer  is  a  soli- 
tary being  who  meets  his  fellows  solely  for  the  purposes 
of  religion  or  some  festive  gathei-ing.  Yet  ignorant  and 
slow-witted  as  they  are,  inborn  ability  and  resolution  are 
not  wanting.  They  have  indeed  a  double  measure  of  wari- 
ness and  wiliness  in  their  intercourse  with  strangers,  be- 
cause their  habitual  suspicion  makes  them  seek  in  craft 
the  defense  for  their  ignorance  of  affairs :  while  their  na- 
tive doggedness  is  confirmed  by  their  behef  in  the  continued 
guidance  and  protection  of  that  Providence  whose  hand 
led  them  through  the  wilderness  and  gave  them  the  victory 
over  all  their  enemies. 

This  was  the  people  into  whose  territory  there  came, 
after  1884,  a  sudden  swarm  of  gold-seekers.    The  Uit- 


THE  TRANSVAAL  BEFORE  THE  RISING  OF  1895  423 

landers,  as  these  strangers  are  called  (the  word  is  not 
really  Dutch,  I  was  told,  but  an  adaptation  from  the  Grer- 
man),  who  by  1890  had  come  to  equal  and  soon  thereafter 
to  exceed  the  whole  number  of  the  Boers,  belonged  to 
many  stocks.  The  natives  of  England,  the  Cape,  and 
Natal  were  the  most  numerous,  but  there  were  also  many 
English-speaking  men  from  other  regions,  including  Aus- 
tralians and  Americans,  a  smaller  nimiber  of  Germans 
and  Scandinavians,  some  Russians  (mostly  Jews),  and  a 
few  Italians  and  Frenchmen.  Unlike  as  these  newcomers 
were  to  one  another,  they  were  all  still  more  unlike  the 
rude  hunting  and  pastoral  people  among  whom  they 
came.  They  were  miners,  traders,  financiers,  engineers, 
keen,  nimble-minded  men,  all  more  or  less  skUled  in  their 
respective  crafts,  all  bent  on  gain,  and  most  of  them  with 
that  sense  of  irresponsibility  and  fondness  for  temporary 
pleasure  which  a  chanceful  and  uncertain  Hfe,  far  from 
home,  and  relieved  from  the  fear  of  public  opinion,  tends 
to  produce.  Except  some  of  the  men  from  Cape  Colony, 
they  could  not  speak  Dutch,  and  had  no  means  of  com- 
munication, any  more  than  they  had  social  or  moral  affini- 
ties, with  the  folk  of  the  land.  There  were  therefore  no 
beginnings  of  any  assimilation  between  them  and  the 
latter.  They  did  not  affect  the  Boers,  except  with  a  sense  of 
repulsion,  and  still  less  did  the  Boers  affect  them.  More- 
over, there  were  few  occasions  for  social  contact.  The 
Uitlanders  settled  only  along  the  "Witwatersrand,  and  were 
aggregated  chiefly  in  Johannesburg.  The  Boers  who  had 
lived  on  the  Rand,  except  a  few  who  came  daily  into  the 
towns  with  their  wagons  to  sell  milk  and  vegetables,  re- 
tired from  it.  It  was  only  in  Pretoria  and  in  a  few  other 
villages  that  there  was  any  direct  social  contact  between 
the  two  elements. 


424  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


Although  less  than  half  of  the  immigrants  came  from 
England,  probably  five  sixths  spoke  English,  and  felt 
themselves  di'awn  together  not  only  by  language,  but  by 
community  of  ideas  and  habits.  The  Australians,  the 
Americans,  and  the  men  from  Cape  Colony  and  Natal 
considered  themselves  for  all  practical— I  do  not  say  for 
all  political— pui"poses  to  be  English,  and  English  became 
the  general  spoken  tongue  not  only  of  Johannesburg,  but 
of  all  the  mining  districts.  Hearing  nothing  but  English 
spoken,  seeing  nothing  all  round  them  that  was  not  sub- 
stantially English,  though  with  a  half-colonial,  half- Ameri- 
can tinge,  it  was  natural  that  the  bulk  of  the  Uitlanders 
should  deem  themselves  to  be  in  a  countiy  which  had 
become  virtually  English,  and  should  see  something  un- 
reasonable or  even  gi-otesque  in  the  conti'ol  of  a  small 
body  of  persons  whom  they  deemed  in  eveiy  way  then-  in- 
feriors. However,  before  I  describe  their  sentiments  and 
then*  schemes,  some  account  must  be  given  of  the  govern- 
ment under  which  they  lived. 

As  was  explained  in  a  pre\dous  chapter  (Chapter  XH), 
the  South  African  Republic  was  formed  by  the  union, 
between  1858  and  1862,  of  several  small  and  theretofore 
practically  independent  republican  communities.  Its 
constitution  was  set  forth  in  a  document  called  the 
Grrondwet,  or  "Fundamental  Law,"i  enacted  in  1858 
(partly  based  on  a  prior  draft  of  1855).  It  is  a  veiy 
crude,  and  indeed  rude,  instrument,  occasionally  ob- 
scure, and  containing  much  matter  not  fit  for  a  con- 

1  I  have  elsewhere  analyzed  (see  "Formn"  for  April,  1896)  this 
constitution,  and  discussed  the  question  whether  it  is  to  be  regarded 
as  a  true  rigid  constitution,  like  that  of  the  United  States,  of  the 
Swiss  Confederation,  and  of  the  Orange  Free  State,  or  as  a  flexible 
constitution,  alterable  by  the  ordinary  legislative  machinery. 


THE  TEANSVAAL  BEFORE  THE  RISING  OF  1895  425 

stitution.  It  breathes,  however,  a  thoroughly  free  spirit, 
save  as  regards  Kafirs  and  Roman  Catholics,  recogniz- 
ing the  people  as  the  source  of  power,  laying  down  the 
old  distinction  between  the  three  departments  of  govern- 
ment,—legislative,  executive,  and  judicial, — and  guaran- 
teeing some  of  the  primordial  rights  of  the  citizen.  By  it 
the  government  was  vested  in  a  president,  head  of  the  ex- 
ecutive, and  elected  for  five  years,  an  Executive  Council  of 
five  members  (three  elected  and  two  ex  officio),  and  a  legis- 
lature called  the  Volksraad,  elected  by  the  citizens  on  a 
very  extended  suffrage,  and  declared  to  be  the  supreme 
power  in  the  state.  The  Volksraad  consists  of  one  cham- 
ber, in  which  there  are  at  present  twenty-four  members. 
The  president  has  the  right  of  speaking,  though  not  of 
voting,  in  it,  but  has  no  veto  on  its  action.  Though  there 
are  few  constitutions  anywhere  which  give  such  unlimited 
power  to  the  legislature,  the  course  of  events— oft-recur- 
ring troubles  of  aU  sorts,  native  wars,  internal  dissensions, 
financial  pressure,  questions  with  the  British  government 
—have  made  the  president  practically  more  important 
than  the  legislature,  and,  in  fact,  the  main  force  in  the 
Republic.  The  Executive  Council  has  exerted  little  power 
and  commanded  little  deference,  while  the  Volksraad  has 
usually  been  guided  by  the  president  and  has  never  taken 
the  direction  of  affairs  out  of  his  hands.  Both  legislation 
and  administration  have  been  carried  on  in  a  rough-and- 
ready  fashion,  sometimes  in  violation  of  the  strict  letter  of 
the  law ;  and  the  provision  of  the  Grondwj  t,  that  no  law 
should  be  enacted  without  being  submitted  for  a  period  of 
three  months  to  the  people,  has  been  practically  ignored  by 
the  enactment  as  laws  of  a  large  number  of  resolutions  on 
matters  not  really  urgent,  although  the  Grondwet  permits 
this  to  be  done  only  in  cases  which  do  not  admit  of  delay. 


426  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


In  1881,  when  the  Republic  recovered  its  independence, 
tlie  country  had  neither  roads,  railways,  nor  telegraphs. 
Its  towns  were  rough  hamlets  planted  round  a  little  church. 
Its  people  had  only  the  bare  necessaries  of  life.  The 
taxes  produced  scarcely  any  revenue.  The  treasury  was 
empty,  and  the  government  continued  to  be  hard-pressed 
for  money  and  unable  to  construct  pubUc  works  or 
otherwise  improve  the  country  tiU  1885,  when  the  dis- 
covery of  gold  on  the  Witwatersrand  began  to  turn  a 
stream  of  gold  into  its  coffers.  Riches  brought  new  dif- 
ficulties and  new  temptations.  Immigrants  rushed  in,— 
capitalists,  miners,  and  traders.  As  the  produce  of  the  gold- 
field  increased,  it  became  plain  that  they  would  come  in 
ever-increasing  numbers.  The  old  Boers  took  alai'm.  The 
rush  could  hardly  have  been  stopped,  and  to  stop  it  would 
have  involved  a  check  in  the  expansion  of  the  revenue. 
It  was  accordingly  determined  to  maintain  the  poHtical 
status  quo  by  excluding  these  newcomers  from  political 
rights.  The  Grondwet  declares  (Ai-ticle  VI)  that  "the 
territory  is  open  for  every  foreigner  who  obeys  the  laws 
of  the  Republic,"  and  as  late  as  1881  an  immigrant  could 
acquii'e  the  electoral  franchise  after  a  residence  of  two 
years.  In  1882,  however,  this  period  was  raised  to  five 
years,  and  in  1887  to  fifteen.  In  1890,  by  which  time  the 
unenfranchised  strangers  had  begun  to  agitate  for  the  right 
to  be  represented,  a  nominal  concession  was  made  by  the 
creation  of  a  new  chamber,  called  the  Second  Volksraad, 
for  membership  in  which  the  newcomers  might  be  eligible 
after  taking  an  oath  of  allegiance  followed  by  four  years' 
residence,  the  right  to  vote  for  elections  to  this  chamber 
being  attainable  after  the  oath  and  two  years'  I'esidence. 
This  chamber,  however,  is  limited  to  the  consideration  of 
certain  specified  subjects,  not  including  taxation,  and  its 


THE  TRANSVAAL  BEFORE  THE  RISING  OF  1895   4  2  7 


acts  can  be  overruled  by  the  First  Volksraad,  wliile  its  as- 
sent is  not  required  to  the  acts  of  that  body.  It  has  there- 
fore turned  out  little  better  than  a  sham,  having,  in  fact, 
been  created  only  as  a  tub  to  throw  to  the^Uitlander  whale. 
The  effect  of  the  legislation  of  1890  and  subsequent  years 
down  to  1894  (legislation  too  intricate  and  confused  to  be 
set  forth  in  detail  here)  has  been  to  debar  any  immigrant 
from  acquiring  the  right  to  vote  for  the  First  Volksraad 
until  he  has  passed  the  age  of  forty  and  resided  for  at 
least  twelve  years  in  the  country  after  taking  the  oath  and 
being  placed  on  the  local  government  lists,  lists  on  which 
the  local  authorities  are  said  to  be  nowise  careful  to  place 
him.  Nor  does  birth  in  the  Republic  confer  citizenship, 
unless  the  father  has  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance.  Presi- 
dent Kruger,  who  has  held  office  since  1881,  was  chiefly 
instrumental  in  passing  these  laws,  for  his  force  of  char- 
acter, long  experience  of  affairs,  and  services  in  the  crisis  of 
1877-81  gave  him  immense  power  over  the  Raad,  in  which 
he  constantly  spoke,  threatening  the  members  with  the  loss 
of  national  independence  unless  they  took  steps  to  stem  the 
rising  tide  of  foreign  inflixence.  As  a  patriot,  he  feared 
the  English ;  as  a  Boer  Puritan  of  the  old  stubborn  stock, 
he  hated  all  foreigners  and  foreign  ways,  seeing  in  them 
the  ruin  of  the  ancient  customs  of  his  people.  He  carried 
this  antagonism  so  far  that,  being  unable  to  find  among 
his  citizens  men  sufficiently  educated  to  deal  with  the 
growing  mass  of  administrative  work  which  the  increase 
of  wealth,  industry,  and  commerce  brought,  he  refused  to 
appoint  Dutch-speaking  men  from  the  Cape  or  Natal,  be- 
cause they  were  natives  of  British  colonies,  and  recruited 
his  civil  service  from  Holland.  The  Hollanders  he  im- 
ported were  far  more  strange  to  the  country  than  Cape 
Dutchmen  would  have  been,  and  the  Boers  did  not,  and  do 


428 


niPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


not  now,  take  kindly  to  them.  But  they  were,  by  the 
necessity  of  their  position,  anti-English,  and  that  was 
enough. 

Meanwhile  the  old  Boer  virtues  were  gi\'ing  way  under 
new  temptations.  The  Volksraad  (as  is  generally  believed) 
became  corrupt,  though  of  course  there  have  always  been 
upright  and  pure  men  among  its  members.  The  civil 
service  was  not  above  suspicion.  Rich  men  and  powerful 
corporations  surrounded  those  who  had  concessions  to 
give  or  the  means  of  influencing  legislation,  whether  di- 
rectly or  indirectly.  The  very  inexperience  of  the  Boer 
ranchman  who  came  up  as  a  member  of  the  Volksraad 
made  him  an  easy  prey.  All  sorts  of  abuses  sprang  up, 
while  the  primary  duties  of  a  government  were  very  im- 
perfectly performed.  Hardly  any  administration  was 
needed  while  the  Transvaal  had  a  population  of  wander- 
ing stock  farmers.  But  when  one  hundred  thousand 
white  immigrants  were  congregated  along  the  Wit- 
watersrand,  and  were  employing  some  sixty  thousand 
native  work-people,  an  efiBcient  police,  an  abundant  water- 
supply,  good  sanitary  regulations,  and  laws  to  keep  liquor 
from  the  natives,  became  urgently  needed ;  and  none  of 
these  things  was  provided,  although  taxation  continued  to 
rise  and  the  treasury  was  overflowing.  Accordingly,  the 
discontent  of  the  Uitlanders  increased.  It  was  no  longer 
a  mere  question  of  obtaining  political  rights  for  then*  own 
sake  ;  it  was  also  a  question  of  winning  political  power  in  or- 
der to  reform  the  administration,  and  so  secure  those  prac- 
tical benefits  which  the  president  and  the  Volksraad  and 
the  Hollander  officials  were  either  unable  or  unwilling  to 
give.  In  1892  an  association,  called  the  National  Union, 
was  formed  by  a  number  of  Uitlanders,  "  to  obtain,  by  aU 
constitutional  means,  equal  rights  for  all  citizens  of  the 


THE  TRANSVAAL  BEFORE  THE  RISING  OF  1895  429 

Republic,  and  the  redress  of  all  grievances."  Although 
nearly  all  those  who  formed  it  were  natives  either  of  Eng- 
land or  of  the  British  colonies,  it  did  not  seek  to  bring 
the  country  under  British  control,  but  included  among  its 
aims  "the  maintenance  of  the  independence  of  the  Re- 
public." Nevertheless,  it  Lricurred  the  hostility  of  the 
president  and  his  friends,  and  its  petitions  were  uncere- 
moniously repulsed.  This  tended  to  accentuate  the  anti- 
Boer  feeling  of  the  Uitlanders,  so  that  when  Sir  H.  Loch, 
the  High  Commissioner,  came  up  from  the  Cape  in  1894 
to  negotiate  regarding  Swaziland  and  other  pending  ques- 
tions, he  was  made  the  object  of  a  vehement  demonstra- 
tion at  Pretoria.  The  English  took  the  horses  out  of  his 
carriage  and  drew  it  through  the  streets,  waving  the  Brit- 
ish flag  even  over  the  head  of  President  Kruger  himself,  and 
shouting  "  Reform  !  Reform  !  "  This  incident  redoubled 
Mr.  Kruger's  apprehensions,  but  did  not  shake  his  purpose. 
It  suggested  new  plans  to  the  Uitlanders,  who  had  (shortly 
before)  been  further  incensed  by  the  demand  of  the  gov- 
ernment that  they  should,  although  debarred  from  the 
suffrage,  serve  in  a  military  commando  sent  against  the 
Kafir  chief  Malaboch.  Despairing  of  constitutional  agi- 
tation, they  began  to  provide  themselves  with  arms  and 
to  talk  of  a  general  rising.  Another  cause,  which  I  have 
not  yet  mentioned,  had  recently  sharpened  their  eagerness 
for  reforms.  About  1892  the  theory  was  propounded  that 
the  gold-bearing  reefs  might  be  worked  not  only  near  the 
surface,  but  also  at  much  greater  depths,  and  that,  owing 
to  the  diminution  of  the  angle  of  the  dip  as  the  beds  de- 
scend into  the  earth,  a  much  greater  mass  of  gold-bearing 
rock  might  be  reached  than  had  been  formerly  deemed  pos- 
sible. This  view,  soon  confirmed  by  experimental  borings, 
promised  a  far  longer  life  to  the  mines  than  had  been  pre- 


430 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


viously  expected.  Those  who  had  come  to  the  Rand  think- 
ing they  might  probably  leave  it  after  a  few  years  now 
conceived  the  idea  of  permanent  residence,  while  the  direc- 
tors of  the  great  mining  companies,  perceiving  how  much 
their  industry  might  be  developed,  smarted  more  than  ever 
under  the  maladministration  and  exactions  from  which  the 
industiy  suffered. 

These  were  the  events  and  these  the  causes  that  had 
brought  about  the  state  of  things  which  a  visitor  saw  at 
Pretoria  and  Johannesburg  in  November,  1895.  Revo- 
lution was  already  in  the  air,  but  few  could  guess  what 
form  it  would  take.  The  situation  was  a  complicated  one, 
because  each  of  the  two  main  sections  of  the  population, 
Boers  and  Uitlanders,  was  itself  subdivided  into  minor 
groups.  The  Uitlanders  were  of  many  nationalities ;  but 
those  who  spoke  English  were  so  much  the  most  numerous 
—probably  five  sixths  of  the  whole— that  I  shall  speak  of 
them  only,  dismissing  the  other  sixth  with  the  remark 
that  while  many  of  them  sjTnpathized  with  the  Reform 
movement,  few  of  them  gave  it  active  support,  while  most 
of  the  Germans,  moved  by  anti-British  feeling,  favored 
President  Kjuger's  government. 

The  English  section,  including  Cape  and  Natal  men, 
Australians  and  Americans,  consisted  of  three  sets  of  per- 
sons :  the  middle  classes,  the  capitalist  mine-owners,  and  the 
working-men.  The  middle-class  people,  traders,  profes- 
sional men,  engineers,  and  the  like,  either  belonged  to  or 
were  in  sympathy  with  the  National  Union.  It  was  they 
who  had  formed  it.  They  had  recently  presented  to  the 
Yolksraad  a  petition,  signed  bythirty-eight  thousand  non- 
enfranchised  residents,  asking  for  reforms,  and  this  peti- 
tion had  been  scornfully  rejected,  one  member  saying, 
with  no  disapproval  from  his  colleagues,  that  if  the 


THE  TRANSVAAL  BEFORE  THE  RISING  OF  1895  431 

strangers  wanted  to  get  what  they  called  their  rights  they 
would  have  to  fight  for  them.  Their  agitation  had  been 
conducted  publicly  and  on  constitutional  lines,  without 
threats  of  force.  It  was  becoming  plain,  however,  that  some 
at  least  of  the  leaders  were  now  prepared  to  use  force  and 
would  take  arms  when  a  prospect  of  success  appeared.  But 
under  what  flag  would  they  fight  ?  Would  they  adhere  to 
their  original  idea,  and  maintain  an  independent  South  Afri- 
can repubhc  when  they  had  ejected  the  dominant  oligarchy 
and  secured  political  power  for  all  residents  ?  Or  would 
they  hoist  the  Union  Jack  and  carry  the  country  back 
under  the  British  crown  ?  No  one  could  speak  positively, 
but  most  thought  that  the  former  course  would  be  taken. 
The  Americans  would  be  for  it.  Most  of  the  Cape  people 
who  came  of  Dutch  stock  would  be  for  it.  Even  among 
the  pure  English,  some  talked  bitterly  of  Majuba  Hill,  and 
declared  they  would  not  fight  to  give  the  country  back 
to  Britain,  which  had  abandoned  it  in  1881.  The  motives 
of  these  Reformers  were  simple  and  patent.  Those  of  them 
who  had  been  born  or  lived  long  in  Africa  thought  it  an 
intolerable  wrong  that,  whereas  everywhere  else  in  South 
Africa  they  could  acquire  the  suffrage  and  the  means  of 
influencing  the  government  after  two  or  three  years'  resi- 
dence, they  were  here  treated  as  inferiors,  condemned  to  a 
long  disabihty,  and  denied  all  voice  in  applying  the  taxes 
which  they  paid.  Thinking  of  South  Africa  as  practically 
one  country,  they  complained  that  here,  and  here  only,  were 
they  deemed  aliens.  Both  they  and  all  the  other  Uitlanders 
had  substantial  grievances  to  redress.  Food  was  inordi- 
nately dear,  because  a  high  tariff  had  been  imposed  on  im- 
ports. Water-supply,  police,  sanitation,  were  all  neglected. 
Not  only  was  Dutch  the  official  language,  but  in  the  public 
schools  Dutch  was  the  only  medium  of  instruction;  and 


432  IMPRESSIONS  OP  SOUTH  ATEICA 


English  children  were  compelled  to  learn  arithmetic,  geog- 
raphy, and  histoiy  out  of  Dutch  text-books.  It  was  these 
abuses,  much  more  than  any  wish  to  bring  the  Transvaal 
under  the  British  flag,  or  to  establish  a  South  African 
Confederation,  that  disposed  them  to  revolt  against  a  gov- 
ernment which  they  despised. 

The  mine-owning  capitalists  were  a  very  small  class, 
but  powerful  by  their  wealth,  their  intelligence,  and  their 
influence  over  those  whom  they  employed.  They  had  held 
aloof  from  the  agitation  which  began  in  1892,  because 
they  did  not  themselves  care  for  the  franchise,  not  mean- 
ing to  spend  their  lives  in  the  Transvaal,  and  because  they 
knew  that  political  disturbances  would  interfere  with  the 
mining  industry.  The  leading  man,  and  certainly  one  of 
the  ablest  men  among  them,i  foresaw  trouble  as  far  back 
as  June,  1894,  when  he  wrote  that  the  unrest  of  the  coun- 
try came  "from  the  open  hostihty  of  the  government 
to  the  Uitlanders,  and  its  hostility  to  all  principles  of 
sound  government ;  the  end  will  be  revolution  " ;  and  when 
a  few  weeks  later  he  wrote  again :  "  The  mining  companies 
ought  to  have  arms.  The  coiirage  of  the  Boers  is  exag- 
gerated. If  they  knew  there  were  in  Johannesburg  three 
thousand  well-armed  men,  they  would  not  talk  so  loud 
of  destroying  the  town."  Nevertheless,  these  capitahsts, 
like  capitalists  aU  over  the  world,  disliked  force,  and 
long  refused  to  throw  themselves  into  the  movement. 
They  raised  a  fund  for  the  piu-pose  of  tiying  "  to  get  a 
better  Volksraad  "—whether  by  influencing  members  or  by 
supplying  funds  for  election  expenses  has  never  been  made 
clear.  However,  these  efforts  failed,  and  they  became  at 
last  convinced  that  the  loss  to  then*  industry  from  mis- 

1  Copies  of  the  letters  written  by  Mr.  Lionel  Phillips  were  seized 
after  the  rising  and  published  by  the  Boer  government. 


THE  TRANSVAAL  BEFORE  THE  RISING  OF  1895    4  33 

government  was,  and  would  continue,  greater  than  any 
loss  which  temporary  disturbances  might  involve.  The 
vista  of  deep-level  mining,  which  had  now  opened  itself 
before  them,  made  their  grievances  seem  heavier.  Before 
they  entered  on  a  new  series  of  enterprises,  which  would 
at  first  be  costly,  they  wished  to  relieve  mining  from  the 
intolerable  burdens  of  a  dynamite  monopoly,  foolishly  or  . 
corruptly  granted  to  a  firm  which  charged  an  extortionate 
price  for  this  necessary ;  of  a  high  tariff  both  on  food-stuffs, 
involving  large  expenses  in  feeding  the  work-people,  and  on 
mine  machinery ;  of  extravagantly  heavy  railway  rates  for 
coal ;  and  of  a  system  which,  by  making  it  easy  for  the 
Kafii'  workers  to  get  drunk,  reduced  the  available  amount 
of  native  labor  by  one  third,  and  increased  the  number  of 
accidents  in  the  mines.  These  burdens  made  the  difference 
of  one  or  two  or  three  per  cent,  on  the  dividend  in  the  best 
mines,  threatened  the  prospect  of  any  dividend  on  the  sec- 
ond-best, and  made  it  useless  to  persevere  with  the  working 
of  a  third  class,  where  the  ore  was  of  a  still  lower  grade. 
Such  were  the  considerations  which  at  last  determined  sev- 
eral of  the  leading  mine-owners  to  throw  in  their  lot  with 
the  Reform  party ;  and  the  fusion  of  the  two  streams  gave  a 
new  force  to  the  movement.  This  fusion  took  place  in  the 
middle  of  1895,  and  had  become  known  to  many,  though 
not  to  all,  of  the  Johannesburgers  in  November  of  that 
year.  It  inspired  them  with  fresh  hopes,  and  made  them 
think  that  the  day  of  action  was  near.  Needless  to  say 
that  the  object  of  these  capitalists  was  simply  good  and 
cheap  government,  not  the  extinction  of  the  Republic  or 
its  addition  to  the  territories  of  Britain.  This,  however, 
was  not  the  main  object  of  Mr.  Rhodes,  with  whom  they 
were  (though  this  was  known  only  to  a  very  few  of  the  ^ 
leaders)  by  this  time  in  communication.    Although  he  was 

28 


434 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFEICA 


largely  interested  in  some  of  the  mines,  Ms  aim  was,  as  has 
now  been  admitted  even  by  his  opponents,  not  a  pecuniary 
one.  It  was  to  prevent  the  Transvaal  from  passing  under 
anti-British  influences,  and  to  secui'e  that  it  should  ulti- 
mately become  incorporated  iu  a  seLf-governing  confed- 
eration of  the  several  states  and  colonies  of  South  Africa 
under  the  British  crown.  There  were  probably  others 
among  the  leaders  who  shai-ed  this  purpose ;  but  some  did 
not,  and  here  was  a  question  to  be  determined.  There  was 
to  be  a  rising,  but  under  what  flag  ?  This  \T.tal  point  was 
left  unsettled,  and  at  the  last  moment  it  caused  a  fatal 
delay. 

The  thii'd  class  of  Uitlanders  consisted  of  the  white 
workmen.  It  was  the  most  numerous  class,  and  its  action 
would  evidently  be  decisive.  When  the  visitor  who  heard 
the  situation  discussed— for  there  was  no  secrecy  observed 
—asked  about  the  attitude  of  the  working-men,  he  received 
no  very  definite  answer.  The  general  belief  was  that  they 
would  respond  to  a  call  to  arms :  some  fi'om  patriotism, 
because  they  were  mostly  Englishmen  and  AustraUans; 
some  because  they  meant  to  make  the  Transvaal  their 
home,  and  had  an  interest  in  good  government ;  some  from 
sympathy  with  their  employers ;  some  from  the  love  of  a 
fight,  because  they  were  men  of  mettle.  One  or  two  of 
the  Reform  leaders  were  able  speakers,  and  meant  to  rouse 
them  by  eloquence  when  the  proper  moment  arrived.  The 
result  showed  that  a  majority— that  is,  of  the  EngHsh- 
speaking  workmen— were  willing  to  fight ;  but  others,  in- 
cluding manj^  of  the  Cornish  miners,  were  indifferent,  and 
when  the  day  of  battle  came,  they  departed  by  train  amid 
the  jeers  of  their  comrades. 

These  three  sections  of  Uitlanders  constituted  a  numer- 
ical majority  not  merely  of  the  dwellers  on  the  Rand,  but 


THE  TRANSVAAL  BEFORE  THE  RISING  OF  1895  435 


of  the  whole  white  population  of  the  country.^  There  are 
about  65,000  Boers,  all  told,  and  about  24,000  male  citizens 
over  the  age  of  sixteen.  The  English-speaking  Uitlanders 
numbered  more  than  100,000,  of  whom  fully  one  half 
were  adult  males.  Seven  eighths  of  these  were  gathered 
on  the  Rand.  Had  they  been  armed  and  drilled  and 
unanimous  they  would  have  been  irresistible.  But  they 
were  not  unanimous,  and  were,  moreover,  not  only  un- 
armed but  also  unorganized,  being  a  crowd  of  persons 
suddenly  gathered  from  the  four  winds  of  heaven. 

Over  against  the  Uitlanders  stood  the  native  Boer  popu- 
lation, among  whom  we  must  distinguish  two  classes. 
The  majority,  consisting  of  the  old  "true  blues,"  who 
hated  the  English  and  clung  to  their  national  ways,  sup- 
ported the  government  in  its  stubborn  refusal  to  grant 
reforms.  The  President  in  particular  had  repeatedly  de- 
clared himself  against  any  concession,  insisting  that  no 
concessions  would  satisfy  the  disaffected.  He  looked  upon 
the  whole  movement  as  a  scheme  to  destroy  the  indepen- 
dence of  the  country  and  hand  it  over  to  England.  Exer- 
cising, by  his  constant  harangues  in  the  Volksraad,  what  has 
been  called  a  "  dictatorship  of  persuasion,"  he  warned  the 
people  that  their  customs,  their  freedom,  their  religion, 
were  at  stake,  and  could  be  saved  only  by  keeping  the  new- 
comers out  of  power.  He  was  confirmed  in  this  policy  of 
resistance  by  the  advice  of  his  Hollander  officials,  and 
especially  of  the  State  Secretary,  an  able  and  resolute  man. 

But  the  President,  though  powerful,  was  not  omnipo- 
tent. There  existed  a  considerable  party  opposed  to  him, 
which  had  nearly  overthrown  him  at  the  last  preced- 

1  There  were  some  700,000  Kafirs  in  the  Transvaal,  but  no  one 
reckoned  them  as  possible  factors  in  a  contest,  any  more  than  sheep 
or  oxen. 


436  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


ing  presidential  election.  There  was  in  the  Volksraad  a 
liberal  minority,  which  advocated  reforms.  There  were 
among  the  country  Boers  a  number  of  moderate  men  who 
disliked  the  Hollander  influence  and  the  maladministration 
of  the  government,  and  one  was  told  (though  with  what 
truth  I  could  not  ascertain)  that  the  trekking  which  went 
on  out  of  the  Transvaal  into  Mashonaland  and  to  the  far 
northwest  was  partly  due  to  this  discontent.  There  was 
also  much  opposition  among  the  legal  profession,  Dutch  as 
well  as  English,  for  attacks  had  been  made  upon  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  judiciary,  and  the  reckless  conduct  of 
legislation  gave  displeasm-e.  So  far  back  as  1894  the  Chief 
Justice,  a  man  greatly  respected  for  his  abihties  and  his 
sei'vices  to  the  state,  had  delivered  a  pubhc  addi-ess  warn- 
ing the  people  against  the  dangers  which  threatened 
them  from  neglect  of  the  provisions  of  the  constitution. 
Whether  this  party  of  opposition  among  the  enfranchised 
citizens  would  have  aided  the  Reform  movement  was  doubt- 
ful. They  would  certainly  not  have  done  so  had  the  British 
flag  been  raised.  But  if  the  movement  had  sought  only 
the  destruction  of  Hollander  influence  and  the  redress  of 
grievances,  they  would  at  any  rate  have  refused  to  join  in 
resisting  it. 

"Why,"  it  may  be  asked— "why,  under  these  circum- 
stances, with  so  many  open  enemies  and  so  many  wavering 
supporters,  did  not  President  Kruger  bow  to  the  storm 
and  avert  revolt  by  reasonable  concessions  ? "  He  had  not 
a  friend  in  the  world  except  Germany,  which  had  gone 
out  of  her  way  to  offer  him  sympathy.  But  Germany  was 
distant,  and  he  had  no  seaport.  The  people  of  the  Orange 
Free  State  had  been  ready  to  help  the  Transvaal  in  1881, 
and  from  among  the  Boers  of  Cape  Colony  there  might  in 
the  crisis  of  that  year  have  come  substantial  succor.  But 


THE  TRANSVAAL  BEFORE  THE  RISING  OF  1895  437 


both  the  Free  State  and  the  Cape  Boers  had  been  alienated 
by  the  hostile  tariff  which  the  President  had  set  up  against 
their  food-stuffs  and  by  his  refusal  to  employ  Cape  Dutch- 
men in  the  Transvaal  service.  The  annoyance  of  these 
kindred  communities  had  been  very  recently  accentuated 
by  a  dispute  about  the  drifts  on  the  Orange  Eiver.  It  was 
therefore  improbable  that  anj  help  could  be  obtained 
from  outside  against  a  purely  internal  movement,  which 
aimed  solely  at  reform,  and  did  not  threaten  the  life  of 
the  Repubhc. 

The  answer  to  the  question  just  put  is  to  be  found  not  so 
much  in  the  material  interests,  as  in  the  sentiments  of  the 
old  Boer  party.  They  extended  their  hatred  of  the  English 
to  the  English-speaking  Uitlanders  generally,  and  saw  in 
the  whole  movement  nothing  but  an  EngHsh  plot.  If  the 
President  had  cared  to  distinguish,  he  might  have  per- 
ceived that  the  capitalists  cared  not  for  the  franchise,  but 
for  the  success  of  theu'  mines ;  and  he  might,  by  abolishing 
the  wasteful  concessions,— which  did  not  even  enrich  the 
state,  but  only  the  objects  of  its  Hi-directed  bounty,— by 
reducing  the  tariff,  and  by  keeping  drink  from  the  blacks, 
have  disarmed  the  hostility  of  the  mine  owners,  and  had 
only  the  National  Union  to  deal  with.  Even  the  National 
Union  would  have  lost  most  of  its  support  if  he  had  re- 
f oi-med  the  administration  and  allowed  EngUsh  to  be  used 
in  the  schools.  He  might  have  taken  a  hint  from  the 
Romans,  who,  when  they  admitted  a  body  of  new  citizens, 
managed  to  restrict  their  voting  power ;  and  might,  in  grant- 
ing the  suffrage  to  persons  who  had  resided  for  a  certain 
period  on  the  Rand,  have  kept  the  representation  of  the 
Rand  district  so  small  as  not  to  turn  the  balance  against  the 
old  Boer  party  in  the  Volksraad.  Had  he  gone  further, 
and  extended  the  franchise  to  aU  immigrants  after,  say,  five 

28* 


438 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


years'  residence,  he  might  not  only  have  disarmed  oppo- 
sition, but  have  made  the  South  African  RepubHc  a  power- 
ful state,  no  considerable  section  of  whose  inhabitants 
would  thereafter  have  thought  of  putting  themselves  under 
the  British  crown.  To  have  gone  this  length  would  no 
doubt  have  been  to  take  the  risk  that  the  repubhc  of 
Boers  might  become  before  long  a  republic  of  Englishmen, 
with  an  English  president;  and  from  this  he  naturally 
recoUed,  not  merely  out  of  personal  ambition,  but  out  of 
honest  national  feeling.  But  shoi't  of  this,  he  might,  by 
dividing  his  enemies,  have  averted  a  grave  perU,  fi-om 
which  he  was  in  the  end  delivered,  not  by  his  own  strength, 
but  by  the  mistakes  of  his  antagonists.  However,  he  kept 
the  ship  steadily  on  her  course.  He  had  grown  accustomed 
to  the  complaints  of  the  agitators,  and  thought  they  would 
not  go  beyond  agitation.  When  pressed  to  take  some 
repressive  measure,  he  answered  that  you  must  wait  for 
the  tortoise  to  put  its  head  out  before  you  hit  it,  and  he 
appeared  to  think  it  would  keep  its  head  in.  He  is  one  of 
the  most  interesting  figures  of  our  time,  this  old  President, 
shrewd,  cool,  dogged,  wary,  courageous;  tj'pifj'Lng  the 
qualities  of  his  people,  and  strong  because  he  is  in  sym- 
pathy with  them;  adding  to  his  trust  in  Providence  no 
small  measure  of  worldly  craft ;  uneducated,  but  able  to 
foO.  the  statesmen  of  Europe  by  theu'  own  weapons,  and 
perhaps  aU  the  more  capable  because  his  training  has  been 
wholly  that  of  an  eventful  Life  and  not  of  books. 

This  was  how  things  stood  in  the  Transvaal  in  Novem- 
ber, 1895.  People  have  talked  of  a  conspii-acy,  but  never 
before  was  there,  except  on  the  stage,^  so  open  a  conspiracy. 

^  This  operatic  element  appeared  in  the  rising  itself,  when  a  fire- 
escape,  skilfully  disguised  to  resemble  a  Maxim  gun,  was  moved  back- 
ward and  forward  across  the  stage  at  Johannesbui'g  for  the  purpose 
of  frightening  the  Boers  at  a  distance. 


THE  TRANSVAAL  BEFORE  THE  RISING  OF  1895   4  39 


Two  thirds  of  the  action— there  was  another  third,  which 
has  only  subsequently  become  known— went  on  before  the 
public.  The  visitor  had  hardly  installed  himself  in  an 
hotel  at  Pretoria  before  people  began  to  tell  him  that  an 
insuiTCction  was  imminent,  that  arms  were  being  imported, 
that  Maxim  guns  were  hidden,  and  would  be  shown  to  him 
if  he  cared  to  see  them,  an  invitation  which  he  did  not 
feel  called  on  to  accept.  In  Johannesburg  little  else  was 
talked  of,  not  in  dark  corners,  but  at  the  club,  where 
everybody  lunches,  and  between  the  acts  at  the  play. 
There  was  something  humorous  in  hearing  the  English, 
who  dominate  in  so  many  other  places,  talking  of  them- 
selves as  a  downtrodden  nationality,  and  the  Boers  as  their 
oppressors,  declaring  that  misgovernment  could  not  go  on 
forever,  and  that  those  who  would  be  free  themselves 
must  strike  the  blow.  The  effect  was  increased  by  the 
delightful  unconsciousness  of  the  English  that  the  Irish 
denounce  Saxon  tyranny  in  very  similar  terms.  This 
knowledge  of  an  impending  insurrection  was  not  confined 
to  the  Transvaal.  AU  over  South  Africa  one  heard  the 
same  story ;  all  over  South  Africa  men  waited  for  news 
from  Johannesburg,  though  few  expected  the  explosion  to 
come  so  soon.  One  thing  alone  was  not  even  guessed  at. 
In  November  it  did  not  seem  to  have  crossed  any  one's 
mind  that  the  British  South  Africa  Company  would  have 
any  hand  in  the  matter.  Had  it  been  supposed  that  it 
was  concerned,  much  of  the  sympathy  which  the  move- 
ment received  would  have  vanished. 

As  I  am  not  writing  a  history  of  the  revolution,  but 
merely  describing  the  Johannesburg  aspects  of  it,  I  need 
not  attempt  the  task— for  which,  indeed,  no  sufficient  ma- 
terials as  yet  exist— of  explaining  by  what  steps  and  on 
what  terms  the  Company's  managing  director  and  its 
administrator  and  its  police  came  into  the  plan.  But 


440  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  ATRICA 


it  seems  clear  that  the  Johannesburg  leaders  did  not 
begin  to  count  upon  help  from  the  Company's  force 
before  the  middle  of  1895  at  earliest,  and  that  they 
did  not  regard  that  force  as  anything  more  than  an 
ultimate  resource  in  case  of  extreme  need.  Knowing 
that  the  Rand  Uitlanders,  on  whose  support  they  counted, 
woidd  be  unorganized  and  leaderless,  they  desired,  as  the 
moment  for  action  approached,  to  have  a  military  nucleus 
roimd  which  their  raw  levies  might  gather,  in  case  the 
Boers  seemed  likely  to  press  them  hard.  But  this  was  an 
afterthought.  When  the  movement  began,  it  was  a  purely 
Johannesburg  movement,  and  it  was  intended  to  bear  that 
character  to  the  end,  and  to  avoid  aU  appearance  of  being 
an  English  invasion.^ 

To  the  visitor  who  saw  and  heard  what  I  have  been  de- 
scribing— and  no  Englishman  could  pass  through  without 
seeing  and  hearing  it — two  questions  naturally  presented 
themselves.  One  related  to  the  merits  of  the  ease.  This 
was  a  question  which  only  a  visitor  considered,  for  the 
inhabitants  were  all  committed  on  one  side  or  the  other. 

1  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  point  out  the  absurdity  of  the  state- 
ment, frequently  made  within  the  last  few  months,  that  the  Company 
intended  to  seize  the  Transvaal  for  itself.  The  Company  could  no 
more  have  taken  the  Transvaal  than  it  could  have  taken  Natal.  What 
the  insurgent  Uitlanders  were  to  rise  for  was  self-government,  and 
they  would  have  objected  to  be  governed  by  the  Company  at  least 
as  much  as  they  objected  to  be  governed  by  the  Boers.  Such  indi- 
vidual members  of  the  Company  as  held  Rand  mining  shares  would 
have  profited  by  the  better  administration  of  the  coimtry  under  a  re- 
formed government,  but  they  would  have  profited  in  exactly  the  same 
way  as  shareholders  in  Paris  or  Amsterdam.  This  point,  obvious 
enough  to  any  one  who  knows  South  Africa,  is  clearly  put  by  M.  Mer- 
meix,  in  his  interesting  little  book,  "La  Revolution  de  Johannes- 
burg." Other  fanciful  hypotheses  have  been  put  forward,  which  it 
seems  needless  to  notice. 


THE  TRANSVAAL  BEFORE  THE  RISING  OF  1895  441 

It  was  a  ease  wliich  raised  a  point  often  debated  by  moral- 
ists :  What  are  the  circumstances  which  justify  insurrec- 
tion ?  Some  cases  are  too  clear  for  argument.  Obviously 
any  subject  of  a  bloodthirsty  tjrrant  ruling  without  or 
against  law  is  justified  in  taking  up  arms.  No  one  doubts 
that  the  Christian  subjects  of  the  Sultan  ought  to  rebel  if 
they  had  a  prospect  of  success ;  and  those  who  try  to  make 
them  rebel  are  blamed  only  because  the  prospect  of  success 
is  wanting.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  clear  that  subjects 
of  a  constitutional  government,  conducted  in  accordance 
with  law,  do  wrong  and  must  be  punished  if  they  take 
arms,  even  when  they  have  grievances  to  redress ;  not  to 
add  that  the  South  African  states  have  so  recently  been 
established,  and  the  Transvaal  in  particular  has  been  so 
famiUar  with  warfare,  that  men's  minds  have  not  settled 
down  into  a  proper  legality  of  view.  It  was  ai'gued  that  the 
Boer  government  was  an  oligarchy  which  overtaxed  its  sub- 
jects, and  yet  refused  them  those  benefits  which  a  civilized 
government  is  bound  to  give.  It  was  the  government  of  a 
smaU  and  ignorant  minority,  and  since  it  was  believed 
to  be  corrapt  as  well  as  incompetent,  it  inspired  no  respect. 
Peaceful  agitation  had  proved  useless.  Did  not  the  sacred 
principle  of  no  taxation  without  representation,  which  had 
been  held  to  justify  the  American  Revolution,  justify  those 
who  had  been  patient  so  long  in  trying  to  remove  their 
grievances  by  force,  of  course  with  as  little  effusion  of 
blood  as  possible? 

On  the  other  hand,  there  was  much  to  be  said  for  the 
Boers,  not  only  from  the  legal,  but  from  the  sentimental 
side  of  the  case.  They  had  fied  out  of  Cape  Colony  sixty 
years  before,  had  suffered  many  perils  and  triimiphed 
over  many  foes,  had  recovered  their  independence  by  their 
own  courage  when  Britain  had  deprived  them  of  it,  had 


442 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


founded  a  commonwealth  upon  their  own  lines,  and  could 
now  keep  it  as  theii'  own  only  by  the  exclusion  of  those 
aliens  in  blood,  speech,  and  manners  who  had  recently 
come  among  them.  They  had  not  desired  these  strangers, 
nor  had  the  strangers  come  for  anything  but  gold.  True, 
they  had  opened  the  land  to  them,  they  had  permitted 
them  to  buy  the  gold-reefs,  they  had  filled  their  coffers 
with  the  taxes  which  the  miners  paid.  But  the  strangers 
came  with  notice  that  it  was  a  Boer  state  they  were  en- 
tering, and  most  of  them  had  come,  not  to  stay  and  to 
identify  themselves  with  the  old  citizens,  but  to  depart 
after  amassing  gain.  Were  these  immigrants  of  yesterday 
to  be  suffered  to  overturn  the  old  Boer  state,  and  bmld  up 
on  its  ruins  a  new  one  under  which  the  Boer  would  soon 
find  his  cherished  customs  gone  and  himself  in  turn  a 
stranger  ?  Had  not  the  English  many  other  lands  to  rule, 
without  appropriating  this  one  also  ?  Put  the  grievances 
of  which  the  Uitlanders  complained  at  their  highest,  and 
they  did  not  amount  to  wrongs  such  as  had  in  other  coun- 
tries furnished  the  usual  pretexts  for  insurrection.  Life, 
religion,  property,  personal  freedom,  were  not  at  stake. 
The  worst  any  one  suffered  was  to  be  overtaxed  and  to 
want  some  of  those  advantages  which  the  old  citizens  had 
never  possessed  and  did  not  care  to  have.  These  were 
hardships,  yet  not  such  hardships  as  justified  a  recourse 
to  arms. 

The  other  question  which  an  observer  asked  liimself 
was  whether  an  insurrection  would  succeed.  Taking  a 
cooler  view  of  the  position  than  it  was  easy  for  a  resident 
to  take,  he  felt  some  doubt  on  this  point,  and  it  occurred 
to  him  to  wonder  whether,  ii  the  government  was  really 
so  corrupt  as  the  Uitlanders  described  it,  the  latter  might 
not  attain  their  object  more  cheaply,  as  weU  as  peaceably, 


THE  TRANSVAAL  BEFORE  THE  RISING  OP  1895  443 

by  using  those  arguments  which,  were  said  to  prevail 
with  many  members  of  the  Volksraad.  Supposing  this 
to  be  impossible,— and  it  may  well  have  been  found  im- 
possible, for  men  who  are  not  scrupulous  in  lesser  matters 
may  yet  refuse  to  tamper  with  what  they  hold  vital, — were 
the  forces  at  the  disposal  of  the  Reform  leaders  sufficient 
to  overthrow  the  government  1  It  had  only  two  or  three 
hundred  regular  troops,  artillerymen  stationed  at  Pretoria, 
and  said  to  be  not  very  efficient.  But  the  militia  included 
all  Boers  over  sixteen;  and  the  Boer,  though  not  disci- 
plined in  the  European  way,  was  accustomed  to  shoot, 
inured  to  hardships  by  his  rough  life,  ready  to  fight  to 
the  death  for  his  independence.  This  militia,  consisting 
of  sixteen  thousand  men  or  more,  would  have  been, 
when  all  collected,  more  than  a  match  in  the  field  for  any 
force  the  Uitlanders  could  arm.  And  in  point  of  fact, 
when  the  rising  took  place,  the  latter  had  only  some  three 
thousand  rifles  ready,  while  few  of  their  supporters  knew 
anything  of  fighting.  As  the  Reform  leaders  were  aware 
that  they  would  be  outmatched  if  the  government  had  time 
to  gather  its  troops,  it  has  been  subsequently  hinted  that 
they  meant  to  carry  Pretoria  by  a  coup  de  main,  capturing 
the  President,  and  forthwith,  before  the  Boer  militia  could 
assemble,  to  issue  a  call  for  a  general  popular  vote  or  plebi- 
scite of  all  the  inhabitants,  Boers  and  Uitlanders,  which 
should  determine  the  future  form  of  government.  Others 
have  thought  that  they  would  not  have  taken  the  offensive, 
but  have  intrenched  themselves  in  Johannesburg,  and  have 
held  out  there,  appealing  meanwhile  to  the  High  Commis- 
sioner, as  representative  of  the  Paramount  Power,  to  come 
up,  interpose  his  mediation,  and  arrange  for  the  peaceable 
taking  of  such  a  general  popular  vote  as  I  have  mentioned. 
To  do  this  it  might  not  have  been  necessary  to  defend  the 


444 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


town  for  more  than  a  week  or  ten  days,  before  which  time 
the  general  sympathy  which  they  expected  from  the  rest 
of  South  Africa  would  have  made  itself  felt.  And  there 
were  in  the  background  the  British  South  Africa  Com- 
pany's police  force  at  Pitsani,  who  were  pledged  to  come 
if  summoned. 

As  everybody  knows,  the  question  of  strength  was  never 
tested.  Toward  the  end  of  December  the  agitation  became 
more  active,  but  the  meetiag  with  which  the  rising  was  to 
have  opened  was  postponed  from  the  last  week  of  the 
month  to  the  6th  of  January.  Before  the  appointed  day, 
and  before  the  Eeformers  had  settled  the  question  of  the 
flag  and  were  ready  to  act,  the  Company's  police  started 
for  Johannesburg.  Theu'  sudden  entrance,  taking  the 
Reform  leaders  by  surprise  and  finding  them  unprepared, 
forced  the  movement  to  go  off  at  half-cock  and  gave  to  it  an 
aspect  quite  different  from  that  which  it  had  hitherto  borne. 
The  invasion  roused  all  the  Boers,  of  whatever  party,  to  de- 
fend theu"  country,  and  di*ew  from  the  High  Commissioner 
an  emphatic  disclaimer  and  condemnation  of  the  expedi- 
tion which  the  home  government  repeated.  The  movement 
ended  more  quickly  than  it  had  begun,  as  soon  as  the 
surrender  of  the  Company's  police  force  had  become  known, 
for  the  representatives  of  the  High  Commissioner  besought 
the  Uitlanders  to  lay  down  their  arms  and  save  the  Hves  of 
the  leaders  of  that  force.  ^  This  they  did,  and,  after  what 
had  happened,  there  was  really  nothing  else  to  be  done. 

1  Much  controversy  has  arisen  as  to  the  promise  which  the  Boer 
commandant  made,  when  the  police  smrendered,  that  the  lives  of 
the  leaders  shoiild  be  spared.  Whatever  might  have  happened  im- 
mediately after  the  surrender,  they  would  not  have  been  put  to  death 
in  cold  blood  at  Pretoria,  for  that  would  have  been  a  blunder  which 
the  astute  President  would  not  have  committed. 


THE  TRANSVAAL  BEFORE  THE  RISING  OF  1895  445 


The  most  obvious  moral  of  the  failure  is  the  old  one 
that  revolutions  are  not  so  easy  to  carry  out  as  they  look 
when  one  plans  them  beforehand.  Of  all  the  insurrections 
and  conspiracies  recorded  in  history,  probably  not  five  per 
cent,  have  succeeded.  The  reason  is  that  when  a  number 
of  private  persons  not  accustomed  to  joint  action  have  to 
act  secretly  together,  unable  to  communicate  freely  with 
one  another,  and  still  less  able  to  appeal  beforehand  to 
those  on  whose  eventual  support  they  rely,  the  chances  of 
disagreement,  of  misunderstanding,  of  failure  to  take  some 
vital  step  at  exactly  the  right  moment,  are  innumerable ; 
while  the  government  in  power  has  the  advantage  of 
united  counsels,  and  can  issue  orders  to  officers  who  are 
trained  to  prompt  obedience.^  In  this  instance  the  plan 
was  beiug  conducted  by  three  groups  of  persons  in  three 
places  distant  from  one  another,— Johannesburg,  Pitsani, 
and  Cape  Town,— so  that  the  chances  of  miscarriage  were 
immensely  increased.  Had  there  been  one  directing  mind 
and  will  planted  at  Johannesburg,  the  proper  center  for 
direction,  the  movement  might  have  proved  successful. 

Another  reflection  wiU  have  occurred  to  the  reader,  as 
it  occurred  to  the  visitor  who  saw  the  storm  brewing  in  No- 
vember, 1895 :  Why  couJd  not  the  Reformers  have  waited 
a  little  longer  ?  Time  was  on  their  side.  The  Uitlanders 
were  rapidly  growing  by  the  constant  stream  of  immi- 
grants. In  a  few  years  more  they  would  have  so  enormously 
outnumbered  the  native  Boers  that  not  only  would  their 
material  strength  have  been  formidable,  but  then-  claim  to 
the  franchise  would  have  become  practically  irresistible. 
Moreover,  President  Kruger  was  an  old  man,  no  longer  in 

1  When  a  conspiracy  succeeds,  the  chief  conspirator  is  usually 
some  one  already  wielding  some  civil  or  military  power,  as  Louis 
Napoleon  did  when  he  overcame  the  French  Assembly  in  1851. 


446  DIPRESSIOXS  OF  SOUTH  ATRICA 


strong  health.  When  age  and  infirmity  compelled  his  re- 
tii-ement,  neither  of  the  persons  deemed  most  Likely  to  suc- 
ceed would  have  thi-own  obstacles  in  the  way  of  reform, 
nor  would  any  successor  have  been  able  to  oppose  a  resis- 
tance as  strong  as  !Mr.  Kruger's  had  proved.  These  consid- 
erations were  so  ob\'ious  that  one  asks  why,  with  the  game 
in  their  hands  at  the  end  of  a  few  years,  the  various  groups 
concerned  did  not  wait  quietly  tUl  the  ripe  fruit  fell  into 
their  mouths.  Different  causes  have  been  assigned  for 
their  action.  It  is  said  that  they  believed  that  the  Trans- 
vaal government  was  on  the  eve  of  entering  into  secret 
relations,  in  violation  of  the  Convention  of  18S4,  with  a 
Eiu'opean  Power,  and  that  this  determined  them  to  strike 
before  any  such  new  compHcation  arose.  Others  hint  that 
some  among  the  Reformers  conceived  that  a  revolution 
must  in  any  case  soon  break  out  in  the  Transvaal,  that  a 
revolution  would  turn  the  country  into  an  independent 
English  republic,  that  such  a  republic  would  spread  re- 
publican feelings  among  the  British  colonies,  and  lead  be- 
fore long  to  their  separation  from  the  mother  country. 
To  prevent  this  they  were  resolved  to  take  control  of  the 
movement  and  steer  it  away  fi-om  those  rocks.  "Without 
denying  that  these  or  other  still  more  conjectural  motives 
which  one  hears  assigned  may  have  iufluenced  some  of 
the  more  long-sighted  leaders,  I  am  disposed  to  seek  the 
main  cause  of  haste  in  the  impatience  of  those  Uitlander 
residents  who  were  daily  vexed  by  grievances  for  which 
they  could  get  no  redress,  and  in  the  annoyance  of  the 
capitalists,  who  saw  their  mining  interests  languishing 
and  the  work  of  development  retarded.  When  people 
have  long  talked  over  theu'  wrongs  and  long  planned 
schemes  for  thi'owing  off  a  detested  yoke,  they  yield  at  last 
to  their  own  impatience,  feeling  half  ashamed  that  so 


THE  TRANSVAAL  BEFORE  THE  RISING  OF  1895    4  47 

much  talk  should  not  have  been  followed  by  action.  Be- 
sides, the  plan  was  far  from  hopeless.  That  it  failed  was 
due  to  incidents  no  one  could  have  foreseen. 

I  have  described  in  this  chapter  only  such  part  of  the 
circumstances  which  led  up  to  the  rising  as  I  actually  saw, 
and  have,  for  reasons  already  stated,  confined  myself  to  a 
simple  narrative  of  the  main  facts,  and  a  statement  of  the 
theories  put  forward,  abstaining  from  all  comments  on  the 
conduct  of  individuals.  The  expedition  of  the  British 
South  Africa  Company's  police  took  place  after  I  left  the 
country.  Of  it  and  of  what  led  to  it  oral  accounts  have 
been  given  by  some  of  the  principal  actors,  as  well  as  by 
many  independent  pens,  while  the  visible  phenomena  of 
the  Johannesburg  movement  have  been  less  described  and 
are  certainly  less  understood.  I  have  dwelt  on  them  the 
more  fully  not  only  because  they  are  a  curious  episode  in 
history  which  will  not  soon  lose  its  interest,  but  also  be- 
cause the  political  and  industrial  situation  on  the  Wit- 
watersrand  is  still  substantially  what  it  was  in  1895.  Some 
few  reforms  have  been  given,  some  others  promised.  But 
the  mine-owners  have  not  ceased  to  complain,  and  the 
Uitlanders  are  excluded  from  the  suffrage  as  rigorously 
as  ever.  The  Transvaal  difficulty  remains,  and  still  dis- 
turbs the  tranquillity  of  South  Africa.  The  problem  is 
not  a  simple  one,  and  little  or  no  progress  has  been  made 
toward  its  solution. 


CHAPTER  XKYl 


THE  ECONOmC  FUTURE  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 

THOUGH  I  do  not  attempt  to  present  in  tMs  book  an 
account  of  the  agricultural  and  mineral  resources 
of  South.  Africa,  some  words  must  be  said  regarding  its 
economic  prospects— that  is  to  say,  regarding  the  natural 
sources  of  wealth  which  it  possesses,  their  probable  devel- 
opment, and  the  extent  to  which  that  development  will 
increase  the  still  scanty  population.  The  political  and 
social  futui-e  of  the  country  must  so  largely  depend  on  its 
economic  future  that  any  one  who  desires  to  comprehend 
those  political  problems  to  the  solution  of  which  the  people 
are  moving  must  first  consider  what  sort  of  a  people,  and 
how  large  a  people,  the  material  conditions  which  nature 
fui'nishes  are  likely  to  produce. 

The  chief  charm  of  travel  through  a  new  country  is  the 
curiosity  which  the  thought  of  its  futui-e  inspires.  In 
South  Africa,  a  land  singularly  unlike  any  part  of  Europe 
or  of  North  America,  this  curiosity  is  keenly  felt  by  the 
visitor.  When  he  begins  to  speculate  on  the  future,  his 
first  question  is,  WUl  these  wildernesses  ever  become 
peopled,  as  most  of  North  America  and  a  large  part  of 
Australia  have  now  been  peopled,  and  if  so,  what  will  be 
the  character  of  the  population  ?    Will  South  Africa  be- 

448 


THE  ECONOMIC  FUTURE  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA  449 


come  one  of  the  great  producing  or  manufacturing  coun- 
tries of  the  world  ?  Will  it  furnisli  a  great  market  for 
European  goods?  Will  it  be  populous  enough  and  rich 
enough  to  grow  into  one  of  the  powers  of  the  southern 
hemisphere  ? 

Let  us  begin  by  recalling  the  physical  features  of  the 
country.  Most  of  it  is  high  and  dry ;  all  of  it  is  hot.  The 
parts  which  are  high  and  dry  are  also  healthful,  and  fit  for 
the  races  of  Europe  to  dwell  in.  But  are  they  equally  fit 
to  support  a  dense  population  ? 

South  Africa  has  three  great  natural  sources  of  wealth : 
agricultural  land,  pasture-land,  and  minerals.  The  forests 
are  too  scanty  to  be  worth  regarding ;  they  are  not,  and 
probably  never  wdl  be,  sufficient  to  supply  its  own  needs. 
Fisheries  also  are  insignificant,  and  not  likely  ever  to  con- 
stitute an  industry,  so  we  may  confine  ourselves  to  the 
three  first  named. 

Of  these  three  agriculture  is  now,  and  has  hitherto  been, 
by  far  the  least  important.  Out  of  an  area  of  two  hun- 
dred and  twenty-one  thousand  square  miles  in  Cape  Colony 
alone,  probably  not  more  than  one  one-thousandth  part  is 
now  under  any  kind  of  cultivation,  whether  by  natives  or 
by  whites ;  and  in  the  whole  country,  even  if  we  exclude  the 
German  and  Portuguese  territories,  the  proportion  must 
be  very  much  smaller.  There. are  no  figures  available,  so 
one  can  make  only  the  roughest  possible  conjecture.  As 
regards  more  than  half  of  the  country  this  fact  is  explained 
by  the  dryness  of  the  cHmate.  Not  only  the  Karroo  region 
in  the  interior  of  Cape  Colony,  but  also  the  vast  region 
stretching  north  from  the  Karroo  nearly  as  far  as  the 
west-coast  territories  of  Portugal,  is  too  arid  for  tillage. 
So  are  large  parts  of  the  Free  State,  of  the  Transvaal,  and 
of  Matabililand.    Where  there  is  a  sufBcient  rainfall,  as 


29 


450 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


in  many  districts  along  the  south  and  southeast  coasts, 
much  of  the  country  is  too  hilly  and  rough  for  cultivation ; 
so  that  it  would  be  well  within  the  mark  to  say  that  of 
the  whole  area  mentioned  above  far  less  than  one  tenth  is 
suitable  for  raising  any  kind  of  crop  without  artificial  aid. 
I\Iuch,  no  doubt,  remains  which  might  be  tilled  and  is  not 
tilled,  especially  in  the  country  between  the  southeastern 
edge  of  the  great  plateau  and  the  sea ;  and  that  this  land 
lies  untouched  is  due  partly  to  the  presence  of  the  Kafir 
tribes,  who  occupy  more  land  than  they  cultivate,  partly 
to  the  want  or  the  dearness  of  labor,  partly  to  the  ten- 
dency, confirmed  by  long  habit,  of  the  whites  to  prefer 
stock-farming  to  tillage.  The  chief  agricidtural  products 
are  at  present  cereals,  i.  e.,  wheat,  oats,  maize,  and  Kafir 
corn  (a  kind  of  millet),  fruit,  and  sugar.  The  wheat  and 
maize  raised  are  not  sufiicient  for  the  consumption  of  the 
inhabitants,  so  that  these  articles  are  largely  imported,  in 
spite  of  the  duties  leaded  on  them.  There  is  a  considera- 
ble and  increasing  export  of  fruit,  which  goes  to  Eui'ope 
—chiefly  to  the  English  market— iu  January,  Februar}-, 
and  March,  the  midsummer  and  autumn  of  the  southern 
hemisphere.  Sugar  is  grown  on  the  hot  lands  of  Natal 
lying  along  the  sea,  and  might,  no  doubt,  be  grown  all 
the  way  north  along  the  sea  from  there  to  the  Zambesi. 
Rice  would  grow  on  the  wet  coast  lands,  but  is  scarcely 
at  all  raised.  Tea  has  lately  been  planted  on  the  hiUs  in 
Natal,  and  would  probably  thrive  also  on  the  high  lands  of 
Mashonaland.  There  is  plenty  of  land  fit  for  cotton.  The 
tobacco  of  the  Transvaal  is  so  pleasant  for  smoking  in  a 
pipe  that  one  cannot  but  expect  it  to  be  in  time  much 
more  largely  and  carefully  grown  than  it  is  now.  Those 
who  have  grown  accustomed  to  it  prefer  it  to  any  other. 
With  the  exception  of  the  olive,  which  apparently  does 


THE  ECONOMIC  FUTURE  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA  451 


not  succeed,  and  of  the  vine,  which  succeeds  only  in  the 
small  district  round  Cape  Town  that  enjoys  a  true  summer 
and  winter,  nearly  all  the  staples  of  the  warmer  parts  of 
the  temperate  zone  and  of  subtropical  regions  can  be 
grown. 

The  introduction  of  irrigation  would  enormously  enlarge 
the  area  of  tillage,  for  some  of  the  regions  now  hopelessly 
arid,  such  as  the  Karroo,  have  a  soil  of  surprising  fertility, 
which  produces  luxuriant  crops  when  water  is  led  on  to  it. 
Millions  of  acres  might  be  made  to  wave  with  corn  were 
great  tanks,  like  those  of  India,  constructed  to  hold  the 
rains  of  the  wet  season,  or  were  artesian  wells  dug  like 
those  which  have  lately  been  successfully  bored  in  Algeria, 
and  have  proved  so  infinitely  valuable  to  parts  of  Australia. 
Already  about  three  hundred  thousand  acres  are  cultivated 
with  the  aid  of  irrigation  in  Cape  Colony.  At  present, 
however,  it  has  been  deemed  hardly  worth  while  to  execute 
large  irrigation  works  or  to  bore  wells.^  The  price  of  cere- 
als has  sunk  so  low  over  all  the  world  that  South  Africans 
find  it  cheaper  to  import  them  than  to  spend  capital  on 
reclaiming  waste  lands;  and  there  is  plenty  of  land  al- 
ready which  might  be  cultivated  without  irrigation  if  there 
were  settlers  coming  to  cultivate  it,  or  if  Kafir  labor  was 
sufficiently  effective  to  make  it  worth  the  whUe  of  en- 
terprising men  to  undertake  farming  on  a  large  scale. 
The  same  remarks  apply  generally  to  the  other  kinds  of 
produce  I  have  mentioned.  As  population  grows,  and  the 
local  demand  for  food  increases,  more  land  will  be  brought 
under  the  plow  or  the  hoe.  Some  day,  perhaps,  when  the 
great  corn-exporting  countries  of  to-day— North  America, 
La  Plata,  central  India,  southern  Russia— have  become  so 

1  It  is,  however,  still  doubtful  whether  very  large  areas  can  be 
irrigated  by  artesian  wells. 


452 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


crowded  as  to  have  much  less  of  their  grain-crops  to  spare 
for  other  countries,  it  will  become  profitable  to  irrigate 
the  Karroo,  on  which  the  Kafir  of  the  futui-e  wiU  probably 
prove  a  more  efficient  laborer  than  he  is  now.  But  that 
day  is  distant,  and  tiU  it  arrives,  agriculture  will  continue 
to  play  a  very  subordinate  part  in  South  African  indus- 
try, and  will  employ  a  comparatively  small  white  popu- 
lation. 

Ever  since  the  last  years  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
when  the  settlers  were  beginning  to  spread  out  from  the 
Cape  Peninsula  toward  the  then  stiU  unknown  interior, 
the  main  occupation  of  the  colonists,  first  of  the  Dutch  and 
since  then  of  both  Dutch  and  English,  has  been  the  keep- 
ing of  cattle  and  sheep.  So  it  remains  to-day.  Nearly  aU 
the  land  that  is  not  rough  mountain  or  waterless  desert, 
and  much  that  to  the  inexperienced  eye  seems  a  waterless 
desert,  is  in  the  hands  of  stock-farmers,  whose  ranges  are 
often  of  enormous  size,  from  six  thousand  acres  upward. 
In  1893  there  were  in  Cape  Colony  about  2,000,000  cattle, 
in  Natal  725,000,  in  the  Orange  Free  State  900,000,  and 
in  Bechuanaland  the  Bamangwato  (Khama's  tribe)  alone 
had  800,000.  Of  these  last  only  some  5000  are  said  to 
have  sur\-ived  the  murrain,  which  has  (July,  1897)  begun 
to  work  havoc  in  the  other  three  first-mentioned  territories 
also.  In  1896  there  were  in  Cape  Colony  alone  14,400,000 
sheep  and  5,000,000  Angora  and  other  goats.  The  number 
of  sheep  might  be  largely  increased  were  more  effective 
measures  against  the  diseases  that  affect  them  carried  out. 
All  the  country,  even  the  Kalahari  Desert,  which  used 
to  be  thought  hopelessly  sterile,  is  now  deemed  fit  to  put 
some  sort  of  live  stock  upon,  though,  of  course,  the  more 
arid  the  soil,  the  gi-eater  the  area  required  to  feed  one 
sheep.    To  the  traveler  who  crosses  its  wearj^  stretches 


THE  ECONOMIC  PUTUEE  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA  453 

in  the  train  the  Karroo  seems  a  barren  waste ;  but  it  pro- 
duces small  succulent  shi-ubs  much  relished  by  sheep,  and 
every  here  and  there  a  well  or  a  stagnant  pool  may  be 
found  which  suppUes  water  enough  to  keep  the  creatures 
alive.  Here  six  acres  is  the  average  allowed  for  one  sheep. 
Tracts  of  rough  ground,  covered  with  patches  of  thick, 
scrubby  bushes,  are  tui-ned  to  account  as  ostrich-farms, 
whence  large  quantities  of  feathers  are  exported  to  Europe 
and  America.  In  1896  the  number  of  ostriches  in  Cape 
Colony  was  returned  as  225,000.  The  merino  sheep,  in- 
troduced seventy  years  ago,  thrives  in  Cape  Colony,  and 
its  wool  has  become  one  of  the  most  valuable  products  of 
the  country.  In  the  Free  State  both  it  and  the  Angora 
goat  do  well,  and  the  pasture-lands  of  that  territory  sup- 
port also  great  numbers  of  cattle  and  horses.  The  Free 
State  and  Bechuanaland  are  deemed  to  be  among  the  very 
best  ranching-grounds  in  aU  South  Africa. 

Although,  as  I  have  said,  nearly  all  the  country  is  more 
or  less  fit  for  live  stock,  it  must  be  remembered  that  this 
does  not  imply  either  great  pecuniary  returns  or  a  large 
population.  In  most  districts,  a  comparatively  wide  area 
of  ground  is  required  to  feed  what  would  be  deemed  in 
western  America  a  moderate  herd  or  flock,  because  the 
pasture  is  thin,  droughts  are  frequent,  and  locusts  some- 
times destroy  a  large  part  of  the  pasture.  Thus  the  num- 
ber of  persons  for  whom  the  care  of  cattle  or  sheep  in  any 
given  area  provides  occupation  is  a  mere  trifle  compared  to 
the  number  which  would  be  needed  to  till  the  same  area. 
Artesian  wells  might,  no  doubt,  make  certain  regions  better 
for  ranching ;  but  here,  as  in  the  case  of  agriculture,  we 
find  little  prospect  of  any  dense  population,  and,  indeed,  a 
probability  that  the  white  people  will  continue  to  be  few 
relatively  to  the  area  of  the  country.    On  a  large  ranch- 

29* 


454 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


ing-farm  the  proportion  of  "white  men  to  black  servants  is 
usually  about  three  to  twenty-five ;  and  though,  of  course, 
the  proportion  of  whites  is  much  larger  in  the  small  towns 
which  supply  the  wants  of  the  surrounding  country,  stUl 
any  one  can  see  with  how  few  whites  a  ranching  coimtrj' 
may  get  along. 

The  third  soui'ce  of  wealth  lies  in  the  minerals.  It  was 
the  latest  source  to  become  known— indeed,  tUl  thirty  years 
ago  nobody  suspected  it.  Iron  had  been  found  in  some 
places,  copper  in  others ;  but  neither  had  been  largely 
worked,  and  the  belief  in  the  existence  of  the  precious 
metals  rested  on  nothing  more  than  a  Portuguese  tradi- 
tion. In  1867  the  first  diamond  found  in  South  Africa  was 
picked  up  by  a  hunter  out  of  a  heap  of  shining  pebbles 
near  the  banks  of  the  Orange  River,  above  its  confluence 
with  the  Vaal.  In  1869-70  the  stones  began  to  be  lai'gely 
found  near  where  the  town  of  Kimberley  now  stands.  This 
point  has  been  thenceforth  the  center  of  the  industry, 
though  there  are  a  few  other  mines  elsewhere  of  smaller 
productive  power.  The  value  of  the  present  annual  out- 
put exceeds  £4,000,000  ($20,000,000),  but  it  is  not  likely 
to  increase,  being,  in  fact,  now  kept  down  in  order  not  to 
depress  the  market  by  oversupply.  The  discovery  of  dia- 
monds, as  was  observed  in  an  earlier  chapter,  opened  a  new 
period  in  South  African  history,  drawing  crowds  of  immi- 
grants, developuig  trade  through  the  seaports  as  well  as  in- 
dustry at  the  mining  centers,  and  producing  a  group  of 
enterprising  men  who,  when  the  various  diamond-mining 
companies  had  been  amalgamated,  sought  and  found  new 
ways  of  employing  their  capital.  Fifteen  years  after  the 
great  diamond  finds  came  the  stUl  greater  gold  finds  at 
the  Witwatersrand.  The  working  of  these  mines  has  now 
become  the  greatest  industry  in  the  country,  and  Johan- 


THE  ECONOMIC  FUTURE  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA  455 

nesburg  is  the  center  toward  which  the  import  trade  con- 
verges. 

I  need  not  repeat  the  description  given  in  a  previous 
chapter  (Chapter  XVIII)  of  the  Rand  mining  district. 
The  reader  will  remember  that  it  differs  from  all  the 
other  gold-fields  of  South  Africa  in  one  essential  feature 
— that  of  the  comparative  certainty  of  its  yield.  Accord- 
ingly, in  considering  the  future  of  South  African  gold,  I 
will  speak  first  of  those  other  gold-fields  and  then  sepa- 
rately of  the  Rand  district. 

Gold  has  been  found  in  many  places  south  of  the  Zam- 
besi. It  occurs  here  and  there  in  small  quantities  in  Cape 
Colony,  in  somewhat  larger  quantities  in  Natal,  Zulu- 
land,  and  Swaziland,  in  the  eastern  and  northeastern  dis- 
tricts of  the  Transvaal,  at  Tati  in  northern  Bechuanaland, 
and  in  many  spots  through  Matabililand  and  Mashonaland. 
In  aU  (or  nearly  all)  these  places  it  occurs  in  quartz-reefs 
resembling  those  of  North  America  and  Australia.  Some 
reefs,  especially  those  of  the  northern  region  between  the 
Limpopo  and  Zambesi,  are  promising,  and  great  quanti- 
ties of  gold  have  in  times  long  past  been  taken  out  of 
this  region.  As  already  explained  (Chapter  XVII),  it 
seems  probable,  though  not  certain,  that  in  many  districts 
a  mining  industry  will  be  developed  which  will  give  em- 
ployment to  thousands,  perhaps  many  thoiisands,  of  natives, 
and  to  hundreds,  perhaps  many  hundreds,  of  white  engi- 
neers and  foremen.  Should  this  happen,  markets  will  be 
created  in  these  districts,  land  will  be  cultivated,  railways 
wiU  be  made,  and  the  local  trades  which  a  thriving  popu- 
lation requires  will  spring  up.  But  the  life  of  these  gold- 
reefs  will  not  be  a  long  one.  As  the  gold  is  found  in 
quartz-rock,  and  only  to  a  small  extent  in  gravel  or  other 
alluvial  deposits,  the  mining  requires  capital,  and  will  be 


466 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


carried  on  by  eompanies.  It  will  be  carried  on  quickly, 
and  so  quickly,  with  the  aid  of  the  enormously  improved 
scientific  appliances  we  now  possess,  as  to  exhaust  at  no 
distant  period  the  mineral  which  the  rocks  contain.  I 
have  seen  in  Transylvania  a  gold-mine  which  was  worked 
in  the  days  of  the  Romans,  and  is  being  worked  still.  But 
mining  now  is  as  different  from  the  mining  of  the  ancients 
or  of  the  middle  ages  as  a  locomotive  engine  is  from  an 
ox-wagon,  such  are  the  resources  which  chemical  and  me- 
chanical science  place  at  our  disposal.  Accordingly,  the 
payable  parts  of  the  quartz-reefs  will  have  been  drained  of 
their  gold  in  a  few  years,  or,  at  any  rate,  in  a  few  decades, 
just  as  many  of  the  silver  lodes  of  Nevada  have  already 
been  worked  out  and  abandoned.  There  will  then  be  no 
further  cause  for  the  existence  of  the  mine- workers  at  those 
points,  and  the  population  will  decline  just  as  that  of 
Nevada  has  declined.  These  South  African  districts  will, 
however,  be  in  one  point  far  better  off  than  Nevada :  they 
possess  land  fit  everywhere  for  ranching,  and  in  many 
places  for  tillage  also.  Eanching  wQl,  therefore,  support 
a  certain,  though  not  large,  permanent  population ;  while 
tUlage,  though  the  profitable  market  close  by  will  have 
been  largely  reduced  by  the  departure  of  the  miners,  will 
probably  continue,  because  the  land  will  have  been  fui-- 
nished  with  farm-houses  and  fences,  perhaps  in  places  with 
irrigation  works,  and  because  the  railways  that  will  have 
been  constructed  will  enable  agriciiltural  products  to  reach 
more  distant  markets,  which  by  that  time  may  possibly  be 
less  glutted  with  the  cereals  of  North  and  South  America. 
Accordingly,  assuming  that  a  fair  proportion  of  the  quartz- 
reef  gold-fields  tui-n  out  well,  it  may  be  predicted  that 
population  will  increase  in  and  roujid  them  during  the 
next  ten  years,  and  that  for  some  twenty  years  more  this 


THE  ECONOMIC  FUTURE  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA  457 

population  "will  maintain  itself,  though  of  course  not 
necessarily  in  the  same  spots,  because,  as  the  reefs  first 
developed  become  exhausted,  the  miners  wiU  shift  to  new 
places.  After  these  thirty  or  possibly  forty  years,  that  is 
to  say,  before  the  middle  of  next  century,  the  country, 
having  parted  with  its  gold,  wiU  have  to  fall  back  on  its 
pasture  and  its  arable  land ;  but  having  become  settled 
and  developed,  it  may  coimt  on  retaining  a  reasonable 
measui'e  of  prosperity. 

This  forecast  may  seem  to  be  of  a  highly  conjectural 
nature.  Conjectural  it  must  be,  if  only  for  this  reason : 
that  the  value  of  nearly  all  of  the  quartz-reefs  referred  to  is 
still  quite  uncertain.  But  one  cannot  visit  a  new  country 
without  attempting  to  make  a  forecast  of  some  kind ;  and 
the  experience  of  other  countries  goes  to  show  that,  while 
deposits  of  the  precious  metals  are,  under  our  present 
conditions,  no  more  an  abiding  source  of  wealth  than  is  a 
guano  island,  they  may  immensely  accelerate  the  develop- 
ment of  a  country,  giving  it  a  start  in  the  world,  and 
providing  it  with  advantages,  such  as  railway  communica- 
tion, which  could  not  otherwise  be  looked  for.  This  they 
are  now  doing  for  Matabililand  and  Mashonaland,  coun- 
tries in  which  it  would  not  at  present  be  worth  while  to 
construct  railroads  but  for  the  hopes  attaching  to  the 
mines.  This  they  may  do  for  Zululand  and  Swaziland, 
should  the  reefs  in  those  districts  prove  profitable. 

So  much  for  the  quartz-reefs.  As  has  been  observed, 
the  gold-mines  of  the  "Witwatersrand  differ  in  the  much 
greater  certainty  of  their  yield  and  in  the  much  greater 
quantity  of  auriferous  rock  which  they  have  been  ascer- 
tained to  contain.  It  is  probable  that  gold  of  the  value 
of  £700,000,000  (more  than  $3,500,000,000)  remains  to  be 
extracted  from  them.    Already  a  population  of  at  least 


458 


DIPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


150,000  white  men  has  collected  in  what  only  twelve  years 
ago  was  a  barren  wilderness ;  already  nearly  £10,000,000 
worth  of  gold  per  annum  is  being  extracted.  It  is  practi- 
cally certain  that  this  production  and  population  will  go  on 
increasing  during  the  next  few  years,  and  that  the  mines 
will  not  be  worked  out  before  the  middle  of  next  century 
at  earliest.  For  the  next  fifty  or  sixty  years,  therefore, 
the  Rand  district  will  be  the  economic  and  industrial  center 
of  South  Africa  and  the  seat  of  the  largest  European  com- 
munity. What  will  it  be  after  those  sixty  or  perhaps 
seventy  years,  when  the  banket  beds  have  been  drained  of 
their  gold  to  a  depth  of  5000  feet,  the  greatest  at  which 
mining  seems  to  be  practicable  ?  It  is  possible  that  the 
other  industries  which  are  rising  as  ancillary  to  min- 
ing may  for  a  while  and  to  a  reduced  extent  hold  theii* 
ground.  Probabh',  however,  they  will  wither  up  and  van- 
ish. The  land  will  remain,  but  the  land  of  this  highest 
part  of  the  Transvaal,  though  fit  for  pasture,  does  not  lend 
itself  to  tillage.  The  probabilities,  therefore,  are  that  the 
fate  of  Nevada  will  in  time  descend  upon  the  Rand— that 
the  houses  that  are  now  springing  up  will  be  suffered  to 
fall  to  ruin,  that  the  mouths  of  the  shafts  wUl  in  time 
be  covered  by  thorny  shrublets,  and  that  soon  after  a.  d. 
2000  has  been  reached  this  busy  hive  of  industry  and 
noisy  market-place  of  speculation  wiU.  have  again  become 
the  stony  solitude  which  it  was  in  1880.  For  all  practi- 
cal purposes,  however,  an  event  a  hundred  years  away 
is  too  distant  to  be  worth  regarding.  The  world  will 
in  A.  D.  2000  be  so  different  from  what  it  is  now  that  the 
exhaustion  of  the  Rand  gold-field  may  have  a  different 
bearing  from  any  which  we  can  now  foresee.  Johannes- 
burgers  themselves  are  not  disquieted  by  thoughts  of  a 
future  that  is  even  half  a  century  distant.    The  older 


THE  ECONOMIC  FUTURE  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA  459 


sort  win  not  live  to  see  it,  and  the  younger  sort  expect  to 
have  made  their  fortunes  long  before  it  arrives.  Still,  it 
must  be  remembered  that,  so  far  as  minerals  go,  South 
Africa  is  now  living,  not  on  her  income,  but  on  her  cap- 
ital, and  that  in  twenty-five  years  half  the  capital  may  be 
gone. 

There  are  other  metals  in  the  country  besides  the  pre- 
cious ones.  The  presence  of  extensive  coal-beds  in  the 
Transvaal  and  Natal  has  been  a  circumstance  of  the  first 
importance  for  the  profitable  working  of  the  Rand  gold- 
beds,  and  may  encourage  the  growth  of  some  kinds  of 
manufacture.  Iron  is  abundant  both  in  the  Transvaal 
and  in  Mashonaland,  and  has  been  found  in  many  other 
districts,  often  in  the  neighborhood  of  coal.  It  is  not 
worked  now,  because  aU  iron  goods  can  be  obtained  more 
cheaply  from  Europe ;  but  it  may  one  day  grow  into  an 
industry,  as  copper-mining  already  has  in  Little  Namaqua- 
land  on  the  west  coast. 

The  mention  of  coal  and  iron  brings  us  to  another 
branch  of  the  subject— the  possibility  of  establishing  man- 
ufactures which  may  become  a  source  of  wealth  and 
the  support  of  an  industrial  population.  At  present  the 
manufactures  are  insignificant.  All  the  textile  goods, 
for  instance,  nearly  all  the  metal  goods,  and  by  far  the 
larger  part  even  of  the  beer  and  spirits  (intended  for  the 
whites)  and  mineral  waters  consumed  in  the  country  come 
from  Europe.  The  Boers  in  the  two  republics  and  the 
Boer  element  at  the  Cape  have  neither  taste  nor  talent 
for  this  kind  of  industry,  and  such  capital  as  exists  is 
naturally  attracted  to  mining  enterprises.  Nevertheless, 
it  may  be  thought  that  as  capital  accumidates  things 
will  change,  and  that  the  English  part  of  the  population 
in  the  two  British  colonies  will  take  to  manufactures,  as 


460  IMPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


it  has  done  in  Australia.  Let  us  see  whether  this  is 
probable. 

To  enable  South  African  manufactures  to  compete  on  a 
large  scale  with  the  established  manufacturing  countries, 
such  as  those  in  northwestern  Europe  or  northeastern 
America,  three  things  are  needed — a  large  market,  cheap 
sources  of  mechanical  power,  cheap  and  efficient  labor.  Of 
these  the  first  is  at  present  wanting,  and  even  should  the 
growth  of  the  Rand  mining  district  raise  the  white  popula- 
tion of  the  two  colonies  and  two  republics  from  700,000 
(which  is  roughly  its  present  figure)  to  1,200,000,  that  num- 
ber of  consiimers  will  be  still  too  small  to  encourage  the 
expenditure  of  any  large  capital  in  endeavoring  to  produce 
articles  which  the  immense  manufacturing  establishments 
of  Europe,  working  for  popidous  markets,  can  turn  out 
more  cheaply.  As  to  mechanical  forces,  there  are  no  rivers 
to  give  water-power ;  and  though  Natal,  Ztduland,  and  the 
Transvaal  provide  coal,  the  quahty  of  the  mineral  is  in- 
ferior to  that  obtainable  in  South  Wales  or  Belgium 
or  Pennsylvania.  But  the  most  important  conditions 
for  success  are  those  connected  with  labor.  In  South 
Africa  skilled  labor  is  dear  because  scarce,  and  unskilled 
labor  is  dear  because  bad.  As  was  explained  in  a  pre- 
ceding chapter,  all  rough,  hard  work  is  done  by  natives ; 
not  that  white  men  could  not,  in  the  more  temperate 
regions,  perfectly  well  do  it,  but  because  white  men 
think  it  beneath  them  and  only  fit  for  blacks.  Now 
black  labor  is  seldom  good  labor.  The  mixed  race  called 
"Cape  boys"  are  good  drivers,  and  quite  fit  for  many 
kinds  of  railway  work.  They  are  employed  in  the  build- 
ing trades  and  in  sawmills,  and  to  some  extent  in  such 
trades  as  bootmaking.  The  Kafirs  of  the  eastern  pro- 
vince and  of  Natal  are  more  raw  than  the  "  Cape  boys." 


THE  ECONOMIC  FUTURE  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA  461 


They  make  good  plate-layers  on  railways,  and  having 
plenty  of  physical  strength,  will  do  any  sort  of  rough  work 
they  are  set  to.  But  they  have  no  aptitude  for  trades 
requiring  skill,  and  it  will  take  a  generation  or  two  to  fit 
them  for  the  finer  kinds  of  carpentry  or  metal-work,  or 
for  the  handling  of  machinery.  Besides,  they  are  often 
changeable  and  unstable,  apt  to  forsake  their  employment 
for  some  trifling  cause.  Their  wages  are  certainly  not 
high,  ranging  from  ten  to  twenty  shillings  a  month,  besides 
food,  for  any  kind  of  rough  outdoor  work.  Miners  are  paid 
higher,  and  a  Malay  mason  will  get  from  thirty  to  forty 
shillings  a  week ;  but  a  white  laborer  at  twice  the  price 
would,  for  most  kinds  of  work,  be  cheaper.  Nor  is  it  easy 
to  get  the  amount  of  native  labor  that  may  be  needed,  for 
the  Kafii'  prefers  to  till  his  own  patch  of  ground  or  turn 
out  his  cattle  on  the  veldt.  The  scale  for  white  workmen  is, 
of  course,  far  higher,  ranging  from  £2  10s.  to  £8  ($12.50 
to  $40)  a  week,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  work  and 
the  competence  of  the  artisan.  Such  wages  are  double 
those  paid  in  England,  treble  those  paid  in  some  manu- 
facturing districts  of  Germany  or  Belgium,  higher  even 
than  those  paid  in  the  United  States.  It  is  therefore  evi- 
dent that,  what  with  the  badness  of  the  cheaper  labor  and 
the  dearness  of  the  better,  a  manufacturer  would,  in  South 
Africa,  be  severely  handicapped  in  competing  with  either 
Europe  or  the  United  States.  Protectionists  may  think 
that  a  high  tariff  on  foreign  manufactured  goods  woxild 
foster  industrial  undertakings  in  these  colonies.  Such  a 
tariff  would,  however,  need  to  be  fixed  very  high  to  give 
the  local  factory  a  chance — so  high,  indeed,  that  it  would 
excite  serious  opposition  from  the  consumer.  And,  in 
point  of  fact,  there  has  been  hitherto  no  cry  for  a  tariff 
to  protect  home  manufactures,  because  so  few  people  are 


462 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


at  present  interested  in  having  it.  Such  protection  as 
exists  is  directed  to  food-stuffs,  in  order  to  please  the  agri- 
cultural classes,  and  the  tariff  on  other  goods  is  almost 
solelj'  for  revenue. 

The  conditions  I  have  described  may,  and  probably  wiU, 
change  as  the  industrial  training  of  the  natives  improves 
and  their  aversion  to  labor  dechnes  under  the  pressure  of 
increasing  numbers  and  a  reduction  of  the  quantity  of 
land  available  for  them.  But  a  re\'iew  of  the  present  state 
of  things  points  to  the  conclusion  that  no  great  develop- 
ment of  manufactures,  and  of  a  white  population  occupied 
in  manufactures,  is  to  be  expected,  at  least  for  some  time 
to  come. 

Three  other  observations  must  at  this  stage  be  made. 
Till  very  recently.  South  Africans  had  what  the  psalmist 
desii'ed— neither  poverty  nor  riches.  There  were  hardly 
any  white  paupers,  because  the  substratum  of  population 
was  black;  and  as  few  black  paupers,  because  a  Kafir 
has  had  no  wants  except  food,  and  is  content  with  the 
simplest  kind  of  food.  On  the  other  hand,  there  were  no 
rich  whites.  The  farmers,  both  agriculturists  and  ranch- 
men, Hved  in  a  sort  of  rude  plenty,  with  no  luxuries  and 
very  little  money.  Everybody  was  tolerably  well  off,  no- 
body was  wealthy.  There  were  large  stock-farms,  as  in 
Australia,  but  the  owners  of  these  farms  did  not  make  the 
immense  gains  which  many  Australian  squatters  and  some 
American  cattle-men  have  made.  Accordingly,  when  cap- 
ital was  needed  for  the  development  of  the  mines  it  was 
obtained  from  home.  A  few  successful  residents  did,  no 
doubt,  make  out  of  the  diamond-fields  large  sums,  which 
they  presently  appHed  to  the  development  of  the  gold- 
fields.  But  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  money  spent  in 
opening  up  mines,  both  on  the  Witwatersrand  and  else- 


THE  ECONOMIC  FUTURE  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA  463 

where,  has  come  from  Europe,  chiefly  from  England,  but 
to  a  considerable  extent  also  from  France,  Germany,  and 
Holland.  Accordingly,  nineteen  twentieths  at  least  of  the 
profits  made  by  the  mines  are  paid  to  shareholders  in  those 
countries,  and  not  expended  in  South  Africa.  Even  among 
those  who  have  made  fortunes  out  of  diamonds  or  gold  by 
their  personal  enterprise  on  the  spot,  the  majority  return 
to  Europe  and  spend  their  incomes  there.  The  country, 
therefore,  does  not  get  the  full  benefit,  in  the  way  either  of 
payments  for  labor  (except,  of  course,  labor  at  the  mines) 
or  of  increased  consumption  of  articles,  from  its  mineral 
products,  but  is  rather  in  the  position  of  Mexico  or  Peru 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  when  the  bvdk  of  the  precious 
metals  won  from  the  mines  went  to  Spain  as  a  sort  of 
tribute.  There  are  at  this  moment  probably  not  more 
than  a  dozen  rich  men,  as  Europe  counts  riches,  resident 
in  the  country,  and  aU  of  these  are  to  be  found  either  at 
Johannesburg  or  at  Cape  Town.  Most  of  them  wiU  after 
a  time  betake  themselves  to  Europe.  Nor  is  there  any 
sign  that  the  number  of  local  fortunes  will  increase ;  for 
the  motives  which  draw  men  away  from  Johannesburg  to 
Europe  are  likely  to  continue  as  strong  in  the  future  as 
they  are  at  present. 

Secondly,  as  the  whites  are  not— except  at  Johannesburg, 
where  the  lavishness  of  a  mining  popvJation  is  conspicu- 
ous—large consumers  of  luxuries,  so  the  blacks  are  poor 
consumers  of  aU  save  the  barest  necessaries  of  life.  It  is 
not  merely  that  they  have  no  money.  It  is  that  they 
have  no  wants,  save  of  food  and  of  a  few  common  articles 
of  clothing.  The  taste  for  the  articles  which  civilized  man 
requires  is  growing,  as  the  traders  in  Bechuanaland  have 
already  begun  to  find,  but  it  grows  slowly,  and  is  still  in 
a  rudimentary  stage.    The  demand  which  South  Africa  is 


464  IMPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


likely  to  offer  either  for  home-made  or  for  imported  goods 
must,  therefore,  be  measured,  not  by  the  gross  population, 
but  hj  the  white  population,  and,  indeed,  by  the  town- 
dwelling  whites;  for  the  Dutch  farmer  or  ranchman, 
whether  in  the  British  colonies  or  in  the  Dutch  repubhcs, 
has  very  little  cash  in  his  pocket,  and  lives  in  a  simple 
and  primitive  way.  It  is  only  the  development  of  the 
mines  that  makes  South  Africa  a  growing  market  for 
European  goods. 

Thirdly,  there  is  very  little  European  immigration,  ex- 
cept of  persons  seeking  work  at  the  gold-mines  of  the  Rand. 
Agriculturists  do  not  go  out,  because  farms  have  seldom 
been  offered  by  any  of  the  governments  on  the  same  easy 
terms  as  those  which  prevail  in  Canada  or  New  Zealand, 
and  because  the  climate  and  the  existence  of  a  black  pop- 
ulation deter  the  agricultural  classes  of  northern  Europe. 
There  is  plenty  of  land  on  the  south  coast  of  Cape  Colony, 
as  well  as  in  Natal  and  in  the  healthy  uplands  of  Mashon- 
aland,  which  Englishmen  or  Germans  might  cultivate  with 
the  assistance  (in  the  hotter  parts)  of  a  little  native  labor, 
and  which  Italians  or  Portuguese  might  cultivate  by  their 
own  labor,  without  native  help.  The  Germans  who  were 
brought  out  in  1856  throve  in  body  and  estate  on  the 
farms  which  they  tilled  with  their  own  hands  near  Grar 
hamstown.  Nevertheless,  few  agricultural  immigrants 
enter.  Neither  do  men  go  from  Europe  to  start  ranch- 
ing, for  the  pastoral  lands  are  taken  up,  except  in  those 
wilder  regions  where  no  one  could  thrive  without  some 
pre\dous  experience  of  the  country.  The  settling  of  the 
newer  parts  of  the  country,  such  as  those  between  the 
Zambesi  and  the  tropic  of  Capricorn,  is  chiefly  carried  on 
by  the  Boers  of  the  Transvaal  and,  to  a  less  extent,  of  the 
British  colonies;  for  the  Boers  retain  their  passion  for 


THE  ECONOMIC  FUTURE  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA  465 

trekking  out  into  the  wilderness,  while  the  English,  with 
few  exceptions,  like  to  keep  within  reach  of  one  another 
and  of  civilization.  Accordingly,  the  country  receives 
comparatively  few  recruits  from  rural  Europe,  and  its  own 
rural  population  grows  only  by  natural  increase.  There 
are  probably  more  natives  of  India  to-day  tilling  the  soU 
in  Natal  alone  than  the  whole  number  of  agricultur- 
ists who  have  come  from  Europe  in  the  last  thirty 
years. 

We  may  now  endeavor  to  sum  up  the  facts  of  the  case 
and  state  the  conclusions  to  which  they  point. 

South  Africa  is  already,  and  will  be  to  an  increasing 
extent,  a  country  of  great  mineral  wealth.  It  is  only  in 
the  diamond-fields,  especially  those  of  Kimberley,  and  in 
the  gold-fields  of  the  Witwatersrand  that  the  wealth  has 
as  yet  been  proved  to  exist,  so  far  as  regards  precious 
stones  and  precious  metals,  but  it  may  exist  also  in  many 
other  districts.  It  is  not  confined  to  precious  stones  and 
metals,  and  when  these  have  been  exhausted,  copper,  iron, 
and  coal  may  continue  to  furnish  good  returns  to  mine- 
owners  and  plenty  of  employment  to  work-people.  The 
duration  of  the  gold-fields  generally  is  uncertain,  but 
those  of  the  Witwatersrand  will  last  for  at  least  half  a 
century,  and  will  maintain  for  all  that  period  an  indus- 
trial population  and  a  market  for  commodities  which, 
though  smaU  when  measured  by  the  standard  of  the  north- 
ern hemisphere,  will  be  quite  unique  in  Africa  south  of 
the  equator. 

South  Africa  is,  and  will  continue  to  be,  a  great  ranch- 
ing country ;  for  nearly  aU  of  its  vast  area  is  fit  for  live 
stock,  though  in  large  regions  the  proportion  of  stock  to 
the  acre  must  remain  small,  owing  to  the  scarcity  of  feed. 
It  wiU  therefore  continue  to  export  wool,  goats'  hair,  and 

30 


466  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


hides  in  large  quantities,  and  may  also  export  meat,  and 
possibly  dairy  products. 

South  Africa  has  been,  is,  and  will  probably  continue  to 
be  for  a  good  while  to  come,  a  country  in  which  only  a  very 
small  part  of  the  land  is  tilled,  and  from  which  httle  or 
no  agricultural  produce,  except  fruit,  sugar,  and  perhaps  to- 
bacco, win  be  exported.  Only  two  things  seem  Ukely  to  in- 
crease its  agricultural  productiveness.  One  of  these  is  the 
discover)^  of  some  preservative  against  malarial  fever  which 
might  enable  the  lowlands  of  the  east  coast,  from  Durban 
northward,  to  be  cultivated  much  more  largely  than  they 
can  be  now.  The  other  is  the  introduction  of  irrigation 
on  a  large  scale,  an  undertaking  which  at  present  woidd 
be  profitable  in  a  few  places  only.  Whether  in  future  it 
will  be  worth  while  to  irrigate  largely,  and  whether,  if  this 
be  done,  it  will  be  done  by  companies  buying  and  working 
large  farms,  or  by  companies  distributing  water  to  small 
farmers,  as  the  government  distributes  water  in  Egj'pt  and 
some  parts  of  India,  are  questions  which  may  turn  out  to 
have  an  important  bearing  on  the  development  of  the 
country,  but  which  need  not  be  discussed  now. 

South  Africa  has  not  been,  and  shows  no  signs  of  be- 
coming, a  manufacturing  country.  Water-power  is  absent. 
Coal  is  not  of  the  best  quality.  Labor  is  neither  cheap  nor 
good.  Even  the  imposition  of  a  pretty  high  protective 
tariff  would  not  be  likely  to  stimulate  the  establishment  of 
iron- works  or  -foundries  on  a  large  scale,  nor  of  factories 
of  textile  goods,  for  the  local  market  is  too  small  to  make 
competition  with  Europe  a  profitable  enterprise.  In  these 
respects,  as  in  many  others,  the  conditions,  physical  and 
economic,  differ  so  much  from  those  of  the  British  North 
American  or  Australian  colonies  that  the  course  of  indus- 


THE  ECONOMIC  FUTURE  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA  467 

trial  development  is  likely  to  be  quite  different  from  what 
it  has  been  there. 

From  these  conclusions  another  of  great  importance 
follows.  The  white  population  will  be  scanty  in  pro- 
portion to  the  area  of  the  country.  At  present  it  is,  in 
the  two  British  colonies  and  the  two  Dutch  republics,  only 
about  one  and  a  half  persons  to  the  square  mile,  while  over 
the  other  territories  it  is  incomparably  smaller. 

The  country  will  continue  to  be,  so  long  as  the  present 
agricultural  conditions  do  not  change,  a  wilderness,  with  a 
few  oases  of  population  scattered  at  long  distances  from 
one  another.  The  white  inhabitants  will,  moreover,  be 
very  unequally  distributed.  At  present,  of  a  total  popula- 
tion of  about  730,000,  more  than  one  fourth  lives  in  the 
mining  district  of  the  Rand ;  one  sixth  is  found  in  the  five 
principal  seaports  on  the  southern  and  southeastern  coast ; 
the  remaining  seven  twelfths  are  thinly  dispersed  over  the 
rest  of  the  country  in  solitary  farms  or  vQlages,  or  in  a  very 
few  small  towns,  the  largest  of  which,  Eamberley,  has  only 
10,000  inhabitants.  The  only  towns  that  are  growing  are 
the  five  chief  seaports,  and  Johannesburg  with  its  tribu- 
tary mining  villages.  Assuming  the  present  growth  of 
the  Rand  to  continue,  it  may  have  in  ten  years  about 
500,000  whites,  which  will  be  not  much  less  than  one  half 
of  the  then  white  population  of  the  whole  country.  Stim- 
ulated by  the  trade  which  the  Rand  will  supply,  the  five 
seaports  will  probably  also  grow ;  while  elsewhere  popula- 
tion may  remain  almost  stationary.  Unless  the  gold-reefs 
of  the  country  beyond  the  Limpopo  turn  out  well  and 
create  in  that  region  miniature  copies  of  the  Rand  district, 
there  seems  no  reason  to  expect  the  total  number  of  whites 
to  reach  1,200,000  in  less  than  twenty  years.   After  that 


468  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


time  growth  wiU  depend  upon  the  future  of  agriculture, 
and  the  future  of  agriculture  depends  on  so  many  causes 
independent  of  South  Africa  that  it  would  be  unsafe  to 
make  any  predictions  regardiag  it.  I  know  some  South 
Africans,  able  men,  who  think  that  the  day  will  come 
when  the  blacks  will  begin  to  retire  northward,  and  a 
large  white  population  wUl  till  their  own  farms  by  their 
own  labor,  with  the  aid  of  krigation.  Of  the  advent  of 
such  a  day  there  are  no  present  signs,  yet  stranger 
changes  have  happened  in  our  time  than  this  change  would 
be.  Other  South  Africans  beUeve  that  minerals  not  less 
valuable  than  those  which  the  last  twenty  years  have  re- 
vealed are  Likely  to  be  discovered  in  other  places.  This 
also  may  happen,— South  Africa,  it  has  been  said,  is  a 
land  of  surprises,— and  if  it  does  happen  there  may  be 
another  inrush  like  that  which  has  filled  the  Rand.  All 
that  one  can  venture  to  do  now  is  to  point  out  the  prob- 
able result  of  the  conditions  which  exist  at  this  moment, 
and  these,  though  they  point  to  a  continued  increase  of 
mineral  production,  do  not  point  to  any  large  or  rapid 
increase  of  white  inhabitants. 

Twenty  years  hence  the  white  population  is  likely  to  be 
composed  in  about  equal  proportions  of  urban  and  rm-al 
elements.  The  urban  element  will  be  mainly  mining, 
gathered  at  one  great  center  on  the  Rand,  and  possibly  at 
some  smaller  centers  in  other  districts.  The  rural  element, 
consisting  of  people  who  live  in  villages  or  solitary  fai'm- 
houses,  will  remain  comparatively  backward,  because  little 
affected  by  the  social  forces  which  work  suddenly  and 
potently  upon  close-packed  industrial  communities,  and  it 
may  find  itself  very  different  in  tone,  temper,  and  tenden- 
cies from  its  urban  feUow-citizens.  The  contrast  now  so 
marked  between  the  shopkeeper  of  Cape  Town  and  the 


THE  ECONOMIC  FUTURE  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA  469 

miner  of  Johannesburg  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  farmer 
of  the  Karroo  or  the  northern  Transvaal  on  the  other,  may 
be  then  hardly  less  marked  between  the  two  sections  of 
the  white  population.  But  these  sections  will  have  one 
thing  in  common.  Both  wiU.  belong  to  an  upper  stratum 
of  society ;  both  wiU  have  beneath  them  a  mass  of  labor- 
ing blacks,  and  they  will  therefore  form  an  industrial  aris- 
tocracy resting  on  Kafir  labor. 


30* 


CHAPTER  XXVII 
REFLECTIONS  AND  FORECASTS 

IN  preceding  chapters  I  have  endeavored  to  present  a 
picture  of  South  Africa  as  it  stands  to-day,  and  to  sketch 
the  leading  events  in  its  history  to  which  its  present  politi- 
cal conditions  are  due.  Now,  in  bringing  the  book  to  a 
close,  I  desire  to  add  a  few  reflections  on  the  forces  which 
have  been  at  work,  and  to  attempt  the  more  hazardous 
task  of  conjectui'ing  how  those  forces  are  likely  to  operate 
in  the  future. 

The  progress  of  the  country,  and  the  pecuhar  form 
which  its  problems  have  taken,  are  the  resultant  of  three 
causes.  One  of  these  is  the  character  which  nature  has 
impressed  upon  it.  Of  this  I  have  already  spoken  (Chap- 
ter VI),  pointing  out  how  the  high  interior  plateau,  with 
its  healthful  and  bracing  cHmate,  determined  the  main  Une 
of  European  advance  and  secured  the  predominance,  not 
of  the  race  which  first  discovered  the  country,  but  of  the 
race  which  approached  it,  far  later  in  time,  from  its  best 
side.  It  is  also  in  this  physical  character  that  one  must 
seek  the  explanation  of  the  remarkably  slow  progress  of 
the  country  in  wealth  and  population.  South  Africa  be- 
gan to  be  occupied  by  white  men  earlier  than  any  part  of 
the  American  continent.    The  first  Dutch  settlement  was 

470 


REFLECTIONS  AND  FORECASTS  471 


but  little  posterior  to  those  EngUsh  settlements  in  North 
America  which  have  grown  into  a  nation  of  seventy-five 
miUions  of  people,  and  nearly  a  century  and  a  half  prior 
to  the  first  Enghsh  settlements  in  Australia.  It  is  the  un- 
healthfulness  of  the  east  coast  and  the  dryness  of  the  rest 
of  the  country  that  are  mainly  accountable  for  this  tardy 
growth— a  growth  which  might  have  been  stUl  more  tardy 
but  for  the  poHtical  causes  that  drove  the  Boers  into  the 
far  interior.  And  again,  it  is  the  physical  configuration 
of  the  country  that  has  made  it,  and  is  Hkely  to  keep  it, 
one  country.  This  is  a  point  of  cardinal  importance. 
Though  divided  into  two  British  colonies,  with  several 
other  pieces  of  British  territory,  and  two  Boer  repubhcs, 
the  habitable  parts  of  South  Africa  form  one  community, 
aU  the  parts  of  which  must  stand  or  fall  together.  The 
Great  Plateau  is  crossed  by  no  lines  of  physical  demarca- 
tion all  the  way  from  the  Zambesi  to  the  Hex  River  (some 
fifty  miles  northeast  of  Cape  Town),  and  the  coast  regions 
are  closely  bound  by  economic  ties  to  the  plateau,  which 
through  them  touches  the  outer  world.  Popular  speech 
which  talks  of  South  Africa  as  one  whole  is  scientifically 
right. 

The  two  other  causes  that  have  ruled  the  fortunes  and 
guided  the  development  of  the  country  have  been  the 
qualities  and  relations  of  the  races  that  inhabit  it,  and  the 
character  of  the  government  which  has  sought  from  afar 
to  control  the  relations  of  those  races.  These  deserve  to 
be  more  fully  considered. 

English  statesmen  have  for  fifty  years  been  accustomed 
to  say  that,  of  all  the  colonies  of  Great  Britain,  none  has 
given  to  the  mother  country  so  much  disquiet  and  anxiety 
as  South  Africa  has  done.  This  is  another  way  of  ex- 
pressing the  fact  which  strikes  the  traveler— that  no  other 


472  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


British  colony  has  compressed  so  much  exciting  history 
into  the  last  sixty  or  seventy  years.  The  reason  is  un- 
doubtedly to  be  found  in  the  circumstance  that  South 
Africa  has  had  two  sets  of  race  questions  to  deal  with : 
questions  between  the  whites  and  the  aborigines,  questions 
between  the  Dutch  and  the  Enghsh.  It  is  this  latter  set 
of  questions  that  have  been  the  main  thread  of  South 
African  annals.  Why  have  they  proved  so  troublesome  ? 
Why  are  they  so  troublesome  to-day,  when  we  can  look 
at  them  with  a  vision  enlarged  and  a  temper  mellowed  by 
wide  experience  ?  Partly  from  an  element  inherent  in  aU 
race  questions.  They  are  not  questions  that  can  be  settled 
on  pure  business  lines,  by  an  adjustment  of  the  material 
interests  of  the  parties  concerned.  They  involve  senti- 
ment, and  thus,  like  questions  of  religion,  touch  the  deeper 
springs  of  emotion.  And  they  spring  from,  or  are  involved 
with,  incompatibilities  of  chai'acter  which  prevent  either 
stock  fi'om  fully  understanding,  and  therefore  fully  trust- 
ing, the  men  of  the  other.  Suspicion,  if  not  positive 
aversion,  makes  it  difficult  for  men  to  work  together,  even 
where  the  political  arrangements  that  govern  their  rela- 
tions are  just  and  fair  to  both.  But  something  may  also 
be  ascribed  to  certain  malign  accidents  which  blasted  the 
prospect,  once  fair,  of  a  friendly  fusion  between  the  Dutch 
and  the  Enghsh,  races  that  seemed  eminently  fit  to  be  fused. 
The  British  annexation  of  Cape  Colony  occurred  at  an  un- 
fortunate time.  Had  it  happened  thirty  years  earHer  no 
difficulties  would  have  arisen  over  the  natives  and  slavery, 
because  at  that  time  the  new  philanthropy  had  not  begun 
to  influence  English  opinion  or  the  British  government. 
Had  it  happened  in  later  days,  when  steam  had  given 
quicker  and  more  frequent  ocean  communication,  Britain 
and  the  Colony  would  each  have  better  known  what  the 


REFLECTIONS  AND  FORECASTS 


478 


other  thought  and  wished,  and  the  errors  that  alienated 
the  Boers  might  never  have  been  committed.  The  epoch 
of  the  annexation  was  precisely  the  epoch  in  which  the 
differences  between  English  feeling  and  colonial  feeling 
were  most  marked  and  most  likely  to  lead  to  misunder- 
standing and  conflict. 

For  there  has  been  in  the  antagonism  of  the  Boers  and 
the  English  far  more  than  the  j  ealousy  of  two  races.  There 
has  been  a  collision  of  two  types  of  civilization,  one  belong- 
ing to  the  nineteenth  century,  the  other  to  the  seventeenth. 
His  isolation,  not  only  in  a  distant  corner  of  the  southern 
hemisphere,  but  in  the  great,  wide,  bare  veldt  over  which 
his  flocks  and  herds  roam,  has  kept  the  Boer  fast  bound 
in  the  ideas  and  habits  of  a  past  age,  and  he  shrinks  from 
the  contact  of  the  keen,  restless  modern  man,  with  new 
arts  of  gain  and  new  forms  of  pleasure,  just  as  a  Puritan 
farmer  of  Cromwell's  day  might  shrink  were  he  brought 
to  life  and  forced  to  plunge  into  the  current  of  modern 
London.  Had  the  Boers  been  of  English  stock,  but  sub- 
jected to  the  same  conditions  as  those  which  kept  the 
seventeenth  century  alive  in  the  country  behind  the  Cape, 
they  too  would  have  resisted  the  new  ways  of  the  new 
rulers ;  but  being  of  one  race  with  those  rulers,  the  strug- 
gle would  soon  have  been  over.  It  is  the  fact  that  the  old 
Cape  settlers  had  a  language  of  their  own,  and  a  sense  of 
blood-kinship  to  hold  them  together,  that  has  enabled  the 
Dutch  element  to  remain  cohesive,  and  given  them  an 
Africander  patriotism  of  their  own— a  patriotism  which  is 
not  Dutch,  for  they  care  nothing  for  the  traditions  of 
Holland,  but  purely  Africander. 

Their  local  position  as  half-nomadic  inhabitants  of  a 
wide  interior  gave  a  peculiar  character  to  that  struggle 
between  the  mother  country  and  the  colonists  which  has 


474  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFKICA 


several  times  arisen  in  British  history.  They  were  so  few 
and  so  poor,  as  compared  with  the  people  of  the  thirteen 
colonies  of  the  North  American  coast  in  1776,  that  it  was 
useless  for  them  to  rebel  and  fight  for  independence,  as 
those  colonies  had  done.  On  the  other  hand,  they  were 
not,  like  the  French  of  Lower  Canada,  rooted  in  the  soil 
as  agricultui'ists.  Hence  a  middle  course  between  rebel- 
lion and  submission  offered  itself.  That  was  secession. 
They  renounced  not  only  their  political  allegiance,  but 
even  the  very  lands  where  they  had  dwelt,  seeking  the 
protection  of  the  desert  as  other  emigrants  before  them 
had  sought  that  of  the  ocean.  Thus  again,  and  more  com- 
pletely, isolated  since  1836,  the  emigrant  Boers,  and  espe- 
cially those  of  the  Transvaal,  have  been  able  to  retain  their 
old  ways  for  sixty  years  longer,  and  have  grown  more  anti- 
English  than  ever.  On  the  other  hand,  the  English  of  the 
Colony,  whose  EngHsh  sentiment  was  quickened  by  these 
events,  have  remained  more  thoroughly  English  than  those 
of  most  British  colonies,  and  have  never  conceived  the  idea 
of  severing  their  own  connection  with  the  mother  country. 

That  the  emigrant  Boers  became  repubhcans  was  due 
rather  to  circumstance  than  to  conscious  pui'pose.  A 
monarch  they  could  not  have,  because  there  was  no  one 
designated  for  the  place,  as  well  as  because  they  had  the 
instinct  of  general  disobedience.  But  for  a  long  time  they 
tried  to  rub  along  with  no  more  government  or  leadership 
than  the  needs  of  war  required.  Seldom  has  any  people 
been  so  little  influenced  by  abstract  political  ideas,  yet 
seldom  has  a  people  had  so  perfect  an  opportunity  of  try- 
ing political  experiments  and  testing  the  theories  of  politi- 
cal philosophers.  But  the  Boers  were,  and  are  still,  a  strictly 
practical  people.  Then-  houses  give  them  cover  from  sun 
and  rain,  but  nothing  more ;  there  is  little  comfort  and 


REFLECTIONS  AND  FORECASTS 


475 


no  elegance.  So  their  institutions  were  the  fewest  and 
simplest  under  which  men  have  ever  governed  themselves. 
It  is  therefore  no  theoretical  attachment  to  democracy  that 
has  helped  the  Boers  to  resist  the  English ;  it  is  merely 
the  wish  to  be  left  alone,  and  a  stubbornness  of  will  that 
has  made  independence  seem  more  desirable  the  more  it 
is  threatened. 

Even  this  admirable  stubbornness  would  hardly  have 
caiTied  them  through  but  for  their  dispersion  over  vast 
spaces.  That  dispersion,  while  it  retarded  their  political 
growth  and  social  progress,  made  them  hard  to  reach  or 
to  conquer.  The  British  government  despaired  of  over- 
taking and  sui-rounding  them,  for  they  were  scattered  like 
antelopes  over  the  lonely  veldt,  and  there  was  a  still  vaster 
and  equally  lonely  veldt  behind  them  into  which  they 
could  retire.  To  pursue  them  seemed  a  wild-goose  chase, 
and  a  costly  one,  in  which  there  was  much  to  spend  and 
little  to  gain.  Thus  their  weakness  has  proved  their 
strength,  and  the  more  settled  they  become  in  the  future, 
the  less  can  they  hope  to  escape  the  influences  they  have 
so  long  resisted. 

But  for  the  maintenance  of  the  sentiment  of  Boer  na- 
tionality by  the  two  Boer  republics,  the  antagonism  of 
Dutch  and  English  in  Cape  Colony  would  have  ere  now 
died  out,  for  there  has  been  little  or  nothing  in  colonial 
politics  to  sustain  it.  The  interests  of  the  farmers  of  both 
stocks  are  identical,  their  rights  are  in  all  respects  the 
same,  and  the  British  government  has  been  perfectly  impar- 
tial. The  Boers  in  the  Colony  are  good  citizens  and  loyal 
subjects.  It  is  only  the  character  of  the  country  and  the 
conditions  of  their  pastoral  life  that  have  retarded  their 
social  fusion  with  the  English,  as  it  is  only  the  passions 
aroused  by  the  strife  of  Boers  and  Englishmen  in  the  Trans- 


476 


mPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


vaal  that  evoked  in  1881,  and  have  again  evoked  in  1896, 
a  poKtical  opposition  between  the  races.  Fortunately,  the 
sentiments  of  the  Dutch  have  had  a  safe  outlet  in  the 
colonial  Pai-liament.  The  wisdom  of  the  policy  which 
gave  responsible  government  has  been  signally  vindicated ; 
for,  as  constitutional  means  have  existed  for  influencing 
the  cabinet  at  home,  f  eehngs  which  might  otherwise  have 
found  vent  in  a  revolt  or  a  second  secession  have  been 
diverted  into  a  safe  channel. 

The  other  set  of  race  troubles,  those  between  white  set- 
tlers and  the  aborigines  of  the  land,  have  been  graver  iu 
South  Africa  than  any  which  European  governments  have 
had  to  face  ia  any  other  new  country.  The  Red  Men  of 
North  America,  splendidly  as  they  fought,  never  seriously 
checked  the  advance  of  the  whites.  The  revolts  of  the 
aborigines  in  Peru  and  Centi'al  America  were  easily  sup- 
pressed. The  once  warUke  Maoris  of  New  Zealand  have, 
imder  the  better  methods  of  the  last  twenty-five  years, 
become  quiet  and  tolerably  contented.  Even  the  French 
in  Algeria  had  not  so  long  a  strife  to  maintain  with  the 
Moorish  and  Kabyle  tribes  as  the  Dutch  and  the  Enghsh 
had  with  the  natives  at  the  Cape.  The  south-coast  Kafirs 
far  outnumbered  the  whites,  were  fuU  of  courage,  had  a 
very  rough  and  thickly  wooded  country  to  defend,  and  were 
so  ignorant  as  never  to  know  when  they  were  beaten.  A 
more  intelligent  race  might  have  sooner  abandoned  the 
contest.  The  melancholy  chapter  of  native  wars  seems  to 
be  now  all  but  closed,  except  perhaps  ia  the  far  north. 
These  wars,  however,  did  much  to  retard  the  progress  of 
South  Afi'ica  and  to  give  it  a  bad  name.  They  deterred 
many  an  English  farmer  from  emigrating  thither  in  the 
years  between  1810  and  1870.  They  annoyed  and  puzzled 
the  home  government,  and  made  it  think  the  Colony  a 


REFLECTIONS  AND  FORECASTS 


477 


worthless  possession,  whence  little  profit  or  credit  was  to 
be  drawn  in  return  for  the  unending  military  expenditure. 
And  they  gave  the  colonists  ground  for  complaints,  some- 
times just,  sometimes  unjust,  against  the  home  govern- 
ment, which  was  constantly  accused  of  parsimony,  of  short- 
sightedness, of  vacillation,  of  sentimental  weakness,  in 
sending  out  too  few  troops,  in  refusing  to  annex  fresh 
territory,  in  patching  up  a  hollow  peace,  in  granting  too 
easy  terms  to  the  natives. 

Whoever  reviews  the  whole  South  African  policy  of  the 
British  government  during  the  ninety  years  that  have 
elapsed  since  1806  cannot  but  admit  that  many  errors  were 
committed.  Many  precious  opportunities  for  establishing 
British  authority  on  a  secure  basis  were  lost.  Many  things 
were  done  imperfectly,  and  therefore  had  to  be  done  over 
and  over  again,  which  it  would  have  been  cheaper  as 
weU  as  wiser  to  finish  off  at  once.  Many  steps,  prudent 
in  themselves,  and  dictated  by  excellent  motives,  were 
taken  at  a  moment  and  in  a  way  which  made  them  mis- 
understood and  resisted.  Reflecting  on  these  mistakes, 
one  sometimes  wonders  that  the  country  was  not  lost  alto- 
gether to  Britain,  and  thinks  of  the  saying  of  the  old 
Swiss  statesman:  Hom^'^Mm  negligentia,  Dei  providentia, 
regitur  Helvetia.  I*:  may  nevertheless  be  truly  said  for  the 
British  government  that  it  almost  always  sought  to  act 
justly,  and  that  such  advances  as  it  made  were  not  dic- 
tated by  an  aggressive  spirit,  but  (with  few  exceptions) 
compelled  by  the  necessities  of  the  case.  And  it  must 
not  be  forgotten  that,  as  all  home  governments  err  in 
their  control  of  colonies, — Spain,  Portugal,  and  France 
have  certainly  erred  in  their  day  far  more  fatally  than 
England,— so  many  of  the  errors  which  now  most  startle 
us  in  the  annals  of  South  Africa  were  all  but  inevitable, 


478  IMPKESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFEICA 


because  the  wisest  man  could  not  have  foreseen  the 
course  which  things  have  in  fact  taken.  Whoever  tries 
to  look  at  the  events  of  sixty,  thirty,  or  even  twenty 
years  ago  with  the  eyes  of  those  times,  and  remembers 
that  colonial  ministers  in  England  had  to  consider  not 
only  what  they  thought  best,  but  what  they  could  get  the 
uninstructed  public  opinion  of  their  own  country  to  ac- 
cept, win  be  more  indulgent  than  the  colonists  are  in  their 
judgment  of  past  mistakes.  For  instance,  it  is  apt  to  be 
forgotten  that  the  Cape  was  not  occupied  with  a  \dew  to 
the  establishment  of  a  European  colony,  in  our  present 
sense  of  the  word.  The  Dutch  took  it  that  they  might 
plant  a  cabbage-garden;  the  English  took  it  that  they  might 
have  a  naval  station  and  half-way  house  to  India.  Not 
tin  our  own  time  did  people  begin  to  think  of  it  as  capable 
of  supporting  a  great  ci\Tlized  community  and  furnishing 
a  new  market  for  British  goods ;  not  tUl  1869  was  it  known 
as  a  region  whence  gi'eat  wealth  might  be  drawn.  Hence 
Britain,  which  duiing  the  first  half  of  this  century  was 
busy  in  conquering  India,  in  colonizing  Australasia,  and  in 
setting  things  to  rights  in  Canada,  never  cared  to  bend  her 
energies  to  the  development  of  South  Africa,  then  a  less 
promising  field  for  those  energies,  spent  no  more  money 
on  it  than  she  could  help,  and  sought  to  avoid  the  acqui- 
sition of  new  territory,  because  that  meant  new  troubles 
and  new  outlays. 

The  views  of  colonial  policy  which  prevailed  in  England 
down  tin  about  1870  were  very  different  from  those  which 
most  of  us  now  hold.  The  statesmen  of  the  last  genera- 
tion accepted  that  consilhm  coercendi  intra  terminos  imperii 
which,  according  to  Tacitus,  Augustus  held  sound  for  an 
empu'e  less  scattered  than  is  that  of  Britain.  They  thought 
that  Britain  had  already  more  territory  than  she  could  hope 


EEFLECTIONS  AND  FORECASTS 


479 


to  develop  and  (in  the  long  run)  to  govern;  and  they 
therefore  sought  to  limit  rather  than  increase  her  respon- 
sibilities. And  they  believed,  reasoning  somewhat  too 
hastily  from  the  revolt  of  the  North  American  colonies, 
that  as  soon  as  the  new  English  communities  to  which 
self-government  had  been,  or  was  in  due  coui-se  to  be 
granted,  reached  a  certain  level  of  wealth  and  population 
they  would  demand  and  receive  their  independence.  That 
the  fruit  would  faU  off  the  old  tree  as  soon  as  it  was  ripe 
was  the  favorite  metaphor  employed  to  convey  what  nearly 
all  pubhcists  took  to  be  an  obvious  truth.  No  one  stated 
it  so  trenchantly  as  Disraeli  when  he  wrote:  "These 
wretched  colonies  wiU  aU  be  independent  too,  iu  a  few 
years,  and  ai'e  a  millstone  round  our  necks  " ;  but  the  dogma 
was  equally  accepted  by  politicians  belonging  to  the  other 
party  in  the  state.  Those,  moreover,  were  days  in  which 
economy  and  retrenchment  were  popular  cries  in  England, 
and  when  it  was  deemed  the  duty  of  a  statesman  to  reduce 
as  far  as  possible  the  burdens  of  the  people.  Expenditure 
on  colonial  wars  and  the  administration  of  half -settled 
districts  was  odious  to  the  prudent  and  thrifty  contem- 
poraries or  disciples  of  Sir  Robert  Peel  and  Richard  Cob- 
den.  Accordingly,  the  chief  aim  of  British  statesmen  from 
1830  till  1870  was  to  arrest  the  tide  of  British  advance, 
to  acquire  as  little  territory  as  possible,  to  leave  restless 
natives  and  emigrant  Boers  entirely  to  themselves.  Des- 
perate efforts  were  made  to  stop  the  Kafir  wars.  We  can 
now  see  that  the  law  of  nature  which  everywhere  over  the 
world  has  tempted  or  forced  a  strong  civilized  power  to  go 
on  conquering  the  savage  or  haK-civUized  peoples  on  its 
border,  the  law  which  has  carried  the  English  all  over 
India,  and  brought  the  Russians  from  the  Volga  to  the 
Pamirs  in  one  direction  and  to  the  mouth  of  the  Amur  in 


480 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


another,  was  certain  to  compel  the  British  government  to 
subdue  and  annex  one  Kafir  tribe  after  another  until  either 
a  desert  or  the  territory  of  some  other  ci\Tlized  state  was 
reached.  But  fifty  years  ago  this  was  not  clearly  per- 
ceived; so  the  process,  which  might  have  inflicted  less 
suffering  if  it  had  been  steadily  and  swiftly  carried 
through,  went  on  slowly  and  fitfully,  profoundly  regretted 
by  the  statesmen  at  home. 

It  was  the  same  as  regards  the  Great  Plateau  and  the 
Boer  emigrants  who  dwelt  there.  Not  from  any  sympathy 
with  their  love  of  independence,  but  because  she  did  not 
want  the  trouble  of  pursuing  and  governing  them  and  the 
wide  lands  they  were  spread  over,  England  resolved  to 
abandon  the  interior  to  them.  In  1852  and  1854  she  made 
a  supreme  effort  to  check  her  own  onwai-d  career,  first  by 
recognizing  the  independence  of  the  Transvaal  emigrants 
whose  allegiance  she  had  theretofore  claimed,  then  by  actu- 
ally renouncing  her  rights  to  the  Orange  River  Sovereignty 
and  to  those  within  it  who  desired  to  continue  her  subjects. 
What  more  could  a  thrifty  and  cautious  and  conscientious 
country  do  ?  Nevertheless,  these  good  resolutions  had  to 
be  reconsidered,  these  self-denying  principles  foregone. 
Circumstances  were  too  strong  for  the  Colonial  OflSce.  In 
1869  it  accepted  the  protectorate  of  Basutoland.  In  1871  it 
yielded  to  the  temptation  of  the  diamond-fields,  and  took 
Griqualand  "West.  Soon  after  it  made  a  treaty  with 
Khama  which  gave  the  British  a  foothold  in  Bechuanaland. 
In  1877  it  annexed  the  Transvaal.  By  that  time  the  old 
ideas  were  beginning  to  pass  away,  and  to  be  replaced  by 
new  views  of  the  mission  and  destiny  of  Britain.  The 
wish  of  the  British  government  to  stand  still  had  been 
combated  all  along  by  powerful  inducements  to  move  on. 
The  colonists  always  pressed  for  an  advance  of  the  frontier. 


REFLECTIONS  AND  FORECASTS 


481 


The  Governor  usually  pressed  for  it.  The  home  govern- 
ment was  itself  haunted  by  a  fear  that  if  it  abandoned 
positions  of  vantage  its  successors  might  afterward  have 
reason  to  rue  the  abandonment.  These  were  the  consider- 
ations that  drove  British  statesmen  to  the  two  most  mo- 
mentous steps  that  were  taken.  Two  things,  and  two 
only,  were  really  vital  to  British  interests — the  control  of 
the  coast,  and  the  control  of  an  open  road  to  the  North. 
Accordingly,  the  two  decisive  steps  were  the  occupation 
of  Natal  in  1842-43,  which  shut  off  the  Boers  from  the 
sea,  and  the  taking  of  Griqualand  West  in  1871  (followed 
by  the  taking  of  southern  Bechuanaland  in  1884),  which 
secured,  between  the  Transvaal  on  the  one  side  and  the 
Kalahari  Desert  on  the  other,  a  free  access  to  the  great 
northern  plateau. 

The  tide  of  English  opinion  began  to  turn  about  1870, 
and  since  then  it  has  run  with  increasing  force  in  the 
direction  of  what  is  caUed  imperialism.  The  strides  of 
advance  made  in  1884—85  and  1890  have  been  as  bold  and 
large  as  those  of  earlier  days  were  timid  and  halting ;  and 
the  last  expiring  struggles  of  the  old  policy  were  seen  in 
1884,  when  Lord  Derby,  who  belonged  to  the  departing 
school,  yielded  a  new  Convention  to  the  importunity  of  the 
Transvaal  Boers  and  allowed  Germany  to  establish  herself 
in  Damaraland.  But  it  is  due  to  Britain,  which  has  been 
accused,  and  so  far  as  regards  South  Africa  unjustly  ac- 
cused, of  aggressive  aims,  to  recall  the  fact  that  she  strove 
for  many  years  to  restrict  her  dominion,  and  did  not  cease 
from  her  efforts  tUl  long  experience  had  shown  that  the  old 
poHcy  could  not  be  maintained,  and  till  the  advent  on  the 
scene  of  other  European  powers,  whom  it  was  thought 
prudent  to  keep  at  a  distance  from  her  own  settled  terri- 
tories, impelled  her  to  join  that  general  scramble  for  Africa 

31 


482 


IMPRESSIOXS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


which  has  been  so  strange  a  feature  of  the  last  two  decades. 
There  have  been  moments,  ever  since  the  occupation  of  the 
two  supreme  points,  Basutoland  in  1869  and  Griqualand 
West  in  1871,  when  it  has  seemed  possible  that  South 
Africa  might  become  Dutch  rather  than  EngUsh,  such  is 
the  tenacity  of  that  race,  and  so  deep  are  the  roots  which 
its  language  has  sti'uck.  With  the  discoveiy  of  the 
Witwatersrand  gold-fields  that  possibility  seems  to  have 
passed  away  The  process  of  territorial  distribution  is  in 
South  Africa  now  complete.  Every  colony  and  state  has 
become  limited  by  boundaries  defined  in  treaties.  Every 
native  tribe  has  now  some  legal  white  superior,  and  no 
such  tribe  remains  any  longer  formidable.  The  old  race 
questions  have  passed,  or  are  passing,  into  new  phases. 
But  they  will  be  at  least  as  difficult  in  their  new  forms  as 
in  their  old  ones.  I  will  devote  the  few  remaining  pages 
of  this  book  to  a  short  consideration  of  them  and  of  the 
other  problems  affecting  the  future  of  South  Afiica  with 
which  they  are  involved. 

Reasons  have  been  given  in  a  preceding  chapter  for  the 
conclusion  that  both  the  white  and  the  black  races  are 
likely  to  hold  their  ground  over  all  the  country,  and  that 
the  black  race  wiU.  continue  to  be  the  more  numerous. 
Assuming  the  conditions  of  agriculture  to  remain  what 
they  are  now,  and  assuming  that  the  causes  which  now 
discourage  the  establishment  of  large  manufacturing  in- 
dustries do  not  pass  away,  there  will  probably  be  for  the 
next  seventy  years  a  large  white  population  on  the  gold- 
fields  and  at  the  chief  seaports,  and  only  a  small  white  popu- 
lation over  the  rest  of  the  country.  Even  should  UTigation 
be  largeh'  introduced,  it  would  be  earned  on  chiefly  by 
black  laborers.  Even  should  low  wages  or  the  discovery 
of  larger  and  better  deposits  of  iron  and  coal  stimulate  the 


REFLECTIONS  AND  FORECASTS 


483 


development  of  great  manufacturing  industries,  still  it  is 
a  black  rather  than  a  white  population  that  would  be  there- 
with increased.  Various  causes  may  be  imagined  which 
would  raise  or  reduce  the  birth-rate  and  the  infant  death- 
rate  among  the  natives,  so  that  one  cannot  feel  sure 
that  the  existing  proportion  between  them  and  the  whites 
will  be  maintained.  But  if  we  regard  the  question  from 
the  point  of  view  of  labor,  and  take  the  natives  to  repre- 
sent that  part  of  the  community  which  in  Europe  does 
the  harder  and  less  skilled  kinds  of  work,  both  in  country 
and  in  town,  it  may  be  concluded  that  they  will  continue 
to  form  the  majority  even  where  they  live  among  the 
white  people,  without  counting  those  areas  where  they, 
and  they  alone,  are  settled  on  the  land.  But  it  is  impos- 
sible to  conjecture  how  large  the  majority  will  be. 

The  Kafirs,  as  has  been  already  suggested,  will  gradu- 
ally lose  their  tribal  organization  and  come  to  live  like 
Europeans,  under  European  law.  They  will  become  more 
generally  educated,  and  will  learn  skilled  handicrafts; 
many — perhaps,  in  the  long  run,  all — will  speak  EngHsh. 
They  will  eventually  cease  to  be  heathens,  even  if  they  do 
not  all  become  Christians.  This  process  of  Europeaniza- 
tion  will  spread  from  south  to  north,  and  may  probably 
not  be  complete  in  the  north — at  any  rate,  in  the  German 
and  Portuguese  parts  of  the  north— tiU.  the  end  of  next 
century.  But  long  before  that  time  the  natives  will  in 
many  places  have  begun  to  compete  (as  indeed  a  few  al- 
ready do)  with  the  whites  in  some  kinds  of  well-paid  labor. 
They  will  also,  being  better  educated  and  better  paid,  have 
become  less  submissive  than  they  are  now,  and  a  larger 
number  of  them  will  enjoy  the  suffrage.  What  will  be 
the  relations  of  the  two  races  when  these  things  have  come 
about,  say  within  two  or  three  generations  ? 


484  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


Consider  what  the  position  will  then  be.  Two  races  will 
be  living  on  the  same  ground,  in  close  and  constant  economic 
relations,  both  those  of  employment  and  those  of  compe- 
tition, speaking  the  same  language  and  obeying  the  same 
laws,  differing,  no  doubt,  in  strength  of  intelligence  and 
will,  yet  with  many  members  of  the  weaker  race  superior 
as  individual  men  to  many  members  of  the  stronger. 
And  these  two  races,  separated  by  the  repulsion  of  physi- 
cal differences,  will  have  no  social  relations,  no  mixture  of 
blood,  but  will  each  form  a  nation  by  itself  for  all  pur- 
poses save  those  of  industry  and  perhaps  of  politics. 
There  will,  no  doubt,  be  the  nexus  of  industrial  interest, 
for  the  white  employer  will  need  the  labor  of  the  black. 
But  even  in  countries  where  no  race  differences  intervene, 
the  industrial  nexus  does  not  prevent  bitter  class  hatreds 
and  labor  wars. 

Such  a  position — and  it  is  a  position  which  there 
seems  reason  to  expect— will  be  absolutely  without  prec- 
edent in  history  except  in  the  Southern  States  of  the 
American  Union,  where  almost  exactly  what  I  have  de- 
scribed has  come  to  pass,  with  the  addition  that  the  inferior 
race  has  in  theory  exactly  the  same  political  rights  as  the 
superior.  How  will  the  relations  of  two  races  so  living 
together  be  adjusted  ?  The  experience  of  the  Southern 
States  is  too  short  to  throw  much  light  on  this  problem. 
It  is,  however,  a  painful  experience  in  many  respects,  and 
it  causes  the  gravest  anxieties  for  the  futui'e.  Similar  anx- 
ieties must  press  upon  the  mind  of  any  one  who  in  South 
Africa  looks  sixty  or  eighty  years  forward :  and  they  are 
not  diminished  by  the  fact  that  in  South  Africa  the  inferior 
race  greatly  exceeds  the  superior  in  niimber.  But  although 
the  position  I  have  outlined  seems  destined  to  arrive,  it  is 
still  so  distant  that  we  can  no  more  predict  the  particular 


REFLECTIONS  AND  FORECASTS  485 


form  its  difficulties  will  take  tlian  the  mariner  can  describe 
the  rocks  and  trees  upon  an  island  whose  blue  mountains 
he  descries  for  the  first  time  on  the  dim  horizon.  What- 
ever those  difficulties  may  be,  they  will  be  less  formidable 
if  the  whites  realize,  before  the  colored  people  have  begun 
to  feel  aggrieved,  that  they  have  got  to  live  with  the  natives, 
and  that  the  true  interests  of  both  races  are  in  the  long  run 
the  same. 

Although  the  facts  we  have  been  considering  suggest 
the  view  that  the  white  population  of  South  Africa  will  be 
very  small  when  compared  with  that  of  the  North  Ameri- 
can or  Australasian  colonies,  they  also  suggest  that  the 
whites  will  in  South  Africa  hold  the  position  of  an  aris- 
tocracy, and  may  draw  from  that  position  some  of  the 
advantages  which  belong  to  those  who  are  occupied  only 
on  the  higher  kinds  of  work  and  have  fuUer  opportunities 
for  intellectual  cultivation  than  the  mass  of  manual  labor- 
ers enjoy.  A  large  part  of  the  whites  will  lead  a  country 
life,  directing  the  field  work  or  the  ranching  of  their 
servants.  Those  who  dwell  in  the  towns  will  be  merchants 
or  employers  or  highly  skilled  artisans,  corresponding  gen- 
erally to  the  upper  and  middle  strata  of  society  in  North 
America  or  Australia,  but  probably  with  a  smaller  percen- 
tage of  exceptionally  wealthy  men.  There  is,  of  course, 
the  danger  that  a  class  may  form  itself  composed  of  men 
unfit  for  the  higher  kinds  of  work,  and  yet  too  lazy  or  too 
proud  to  work  with  their  hands ;  and  some  observers  pro- 
fess to  discover  signs  of  the  appearance  of  such  a  class. 
If  its  growth  can  be  averted,  the  conditions  for  the  pro- 
gress and  happiness  of  the  white  race  in  South  Africa 
seem  very  favorable ;  and  we  are  approaching  an  age  of 
the  world  when  the  quality  of  a  population  wiU  be  more 
important  than  its  quantity. 

32 


486 


BIPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


In  this  forecast  I  have  said  nothing  of  the  gold-mines, 
because  they  will  not  be  a  permanent  factor.  The  present 
gold  fever  at  the  Rand  is  a  fleeting  episode  in  South 
African  history.  Gold  has,  no  doubt,  played  a  great  part 
in  that  history.  It  was  the  hope  of  getting  gold  that  made 
the  Portuguese  fix  theii*  first  post  at  Sofala  in  1505.  It 
was  the  discovery  of  the  banket  gold-beds  on  the  Wit- 
watersrand  in  1885  that  finally  settled  the  question,  tiU 
then  still  doubtful,  whether  South  Africa  was  to  be  an 
EngUsh  or  a  Dutch  country.  But  gold-mining  will  pass 
away  in  a  few  decades,  for  the  methods  which  the  engineer 
now  commands  will  enable  him  within  that  time  to  extract 
from  the  rocks  aU  the  wealth  now  stored  up  in  them.  A 
day  will  come  when  nothing  will  be  left  to  teU  the  trav- 
eler of  the  industry  which  drew  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
men  to  a  barren  ridge,  except  the  heaps  of  refuse  whose 
ugliness  few  shrubs  will,  in  that  dry  land,  spring  up  to 
cover.  But  South  Africa  will  stiU.  be  a  pastoral  and  agri- 
cultural country,  and  none  the  less  happy  because  the  gold 
is  gone. 

The  question  of  the  relations  of  the  white  race  to  the  black 
is  the  gravest  of  those  which  confront  South  Africa ;  but 
it  is  not  the  nearest.  More  urgent,  if  less  serious,  is  the 
other  race  problem — that  of  adjusting  the  rights  and 
claims  of  the  Dutch  and  the  English. 

It  has  already  been  explained  that,  so  far  as  Cape  Colony 
and  Natal  are  concerned,  there  is  really  no  question  pend- 
ing b-itween  the  two  races,  and  nothing  to  prevent  them 
from  working  in  perfect  harmony  and  concord.  Neither 
does  the  Orange  Free  State  pro\^de  any  fuel  for  strife, 
since  there  both  Boers  and  Enghsh  live  in  peace  and  are 
equally  attached  to  the  institutions  of  their  republic.  It  is 
in  the  Transvaal  that  the  center  of  disturbance  lies ;  it  is 


REFLECTIONS  AND  FORECASTS 


487 


thence  the  surrounding  earth  has  so  often  been  shaken  and 
the  peace  of  all  South  Africa  threatened.  I  have  abeady 
described  the  circumstances  which  brought  about  the  re- 
cent troubles  in  that  state.  To  comment  upon  what  has 
happened  since  the  rising,  to  criticize  either  the  attitude 
of  the  President  or  the  various  essays  in  diplomacy  of  the 
British  government,  would  be  to  enter  that  field  of  current 
pontics  which  I  have  resolved  to  avoid.  What  may  fitly 
be  done  here  is  to  state  the  salient  and  uncontroverted 
facts  of  the  situation  as  it  stands  in  the  middle  of  1897. 

What  are  these  facts?  The  Boer  population  of  the 
Transvaal  is  roughly  estimated  at  65,000,  of  whom  about 
24,000  are  voting  citizens.  The  Uitlanders,  or  ahen 
population,  five  sixths  of  whom  speak  English,  are  esti- 
mated at  180,000,  of  whom  nearly  one  half  are  adult  males. 
These  Uitlanders  hold  sixty-three  per  cent,  of  the  landed 
and  ninety  per  cent,  of  the  personal  property  in  the  coun- 
try. In  December,  1895,  their  number  was  increasing  at 
the  rate  of  one  thousand  per  week  through  arrivals  from 
Cape  Town  alone ;  and  though  this  influx  fell  off  for  a 
time,  while  poHtical  troubles  were  checking  the  develop- 
ment of  the  mines,  it  rose  again  with  the  renewal  of  that 
development.  Should  the  Deep  Levels  go  on  prospering  as 
is  expected,  the  rate  of  immigration  wiU  be  sustained,  and 
by  the  end  of  a.  d.  1905  there  will  probably  be  500,000 
Uitlanders  in  the  Republic— that  is  to  say,  nearly  eight 
times  the  number  of  the  Boers. 

The  numerical  disproportion  between  these  excluded 
persons— a  very  large  part  of  whom  wiU  have  taken  root 
in  the  country— and  the  old  citizens  wiU  then  have  become 
overwhelming,  and  the  claim  of  the  former  to  enjoy  some 
share  in  the  government  wiU  be  practically  irresistible. 
The  concession  of  this  share  may  come  before  1905—1 


488 


IMPEESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


incline  to  think  it  will— or  it  may  come  somewhat  later. 
The  precise  date  is  a  small  matter,  and  depends  upon  per- 
sonal causes.  But  that  the  English-speaking  element  wUl, 
if  the  mining  industry  continues  to  thrive,  become  pohti- 
cally  as  well  as  economically  supreme,  seems  inevitable. 
No  political  agitation  or  demonstrations  in  the  Transvaal, 
much  less  any  intervention  from  outside,  need  come  into 
the  matter.  It  is  only  of  the  natural  causes  already  at 
work  that  I  speak,  and  these  natural  causes  are  sufficient 
to  bring  about  the  result.  A  country  must,  after  all,  take 
its  character  from  the  large  majority  of  its  inhabitants,  es- 
pecially when  those  who  form  that  large  majority  are  the 
wealthiest,  most  educated,  and  most  entei-prising  part  of 
the  population. 

Whether  this  inevitable  admission  of  the  new  citizens 
will  happen  suddenly  or  gradually,  quietly  or  stormily,  no 
one  can  venture  to  predict.  There  are  things  which  we 
can  perceive  to  be  destined  to  occur,  though  the  time  and 
the  manner  may  be  doubtful.  But  as  it  will  be  dictated 
by  the  patent  necessities  of  the  case,  one  may  well  hope 
that  it  will  come  about  in  a  peaceable  way  and  leave  be- 
hind no  sense  of  irritation  in  either  race.  Boers  and  Eng- 
lish cannot  in  the  Transvaal  so  easily  blend  and  learn  to 
work  together  as  they  have  done  in  the  Orange  Free  State, 
because  they  are  socially  far  more  dissimilar  in  the  former 
state  than  they  have  been  in  the  latter.  But  the  extension 
of  the  suffrage,  while  it  will  be  followed  by  legislation  bene- 
ficial to  the  mining  industry,  need  not  involve  legislation 
harmful  to  the  material  interests  of  the  Boer  element.  On 
the  contrary,  the  Boers  themselves  will  ultimately  profit 
by  any  increase  in  the  prosperity  of  the  country.  An  im- 
proved administration  will  give  a  more  assured  status  to 
the  judiciary,  as  well  as  a  better  set  of  laws  and  better 


REFLECTIONS  AND  FORECASTS 


489 


internal  commimications,  advantages  which,  will  be  helpful 
to  the  whole  Republic. 

That  the  change  should  come  about  peaceably  is  im- 
mensely in  the  interests  not  only  of  the  Transvaal  itself,  but 
of  aU  South  Africa.  The  irritation  of  the  Dutch  element 
in  Cape  Colony,  both  in  1881  and  again  in  1896,  was  due  to 
an  impression  that  their  Transvaal  kinsfolk  were  being 
unfauiy  dealt  with.  Should  that  impression  recur,  its 
influence  both  on  the  Orange  Free  State  and  on  the  Dutch 
of  Cape  Colony  would  be  unfortunate.  The  history  of 
South  Africa,  like  that  of  other  countries  nearer  home, 
warns  us  how  powerful  a  factor  sentiment,  and  especially 
the  sense  of  resentment  at  injustice,  may  become  in  poHtics, 
and  how  it  may  continue  to  work  mischief  even  when  the 
injustice  has  been  repented  of.  It  is,  therefore,  not  only 
considerations  of  magnanimity  and  equity,  but  also  con- 
siderations of  policy,  that  recommend  to  the  English  in 
South  Africa  and  to  the  British  government  an  attitude 
of  patience,  prudence,  and  a  strict  adherence  to  legal  rights. 
They  are  entitled  to  require  the  same  adherence  from  the 
Transvaal  government,  but  it  is  equally  their  interest  not  to 
depart  from  it  themselves,  and  to  avoid  even  the  appearance 
of  aggression.  The  mistakes  of  the  past  are  not  irremedi- 
able. Tact,  coolness,  and  patience  must  gradually  bring 
about  that  reconcilement  and  fusion  of  the  two  races  to 
which,  it  can  scarcely  be  doubted,  South  Afi-ica  will  at  last 
attain. 

When,  by  the  enfranchisement  of  the  Uitlanders,  the 
Transvaal  has  ceased  to  be  a  purely  Dutch  state,  questions 
will  arise  as  to  its  relations  to  the  other  states  of  South 
Africa.  Cape  Colony  and  the  Orange  Free  State,  with 
Basutoland  and  the  Bechuanaland  Protectorate,  already 
form  a  Customs  Union,  and  they  have  long  sought  to  in- 

32* 


490 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


duce  the  Transvaal  and  Natal  to  enter  into  it  and  thereby 
establish  internal  free  trade  throughout  the  country. 
Natal  has  hitherto  refused,  because  she  deems  the  tariff  of 
the  Customs  Union  too  high ;  while  the  Transvaal  people 
have  desired  to  stand  as  much  aloof  as  possible  from  Cape 
Colony,  as  weU  as  to  raise  for  themselves  substantial  reve- 
nue on  imports  beyond  what  they  would  have  as  partners 
in  the  Customs  Union.  A  reformed  Transvaal  government 
would  probably  enter  the  Customs  Union ;  and  this  would 
usher  in  the  further  question  of  a  confederation  of  all  the 
states  and  colonies  of  South  Africa.  That  project  was 
mooted  by  Sir  George  Grey  (when  Governor)  more  than 
thirty  years  ago,  and  was  actively  pressed  by  Lord  Carnar- 
von (when  Colonial  Secretary)  and  Sir  Bartle  Frere  between 
1875  and  1880.  It  failed  at  that  time,  partly  owing  to 
the  annoyance  of  the  Orange  Free  State  at  the  loss  of 
the  diamond-fields  in  1871,  partly  to  the  reluctance  of 
the  Dutch  party  at  the  Cape,  who  were  roused  against  the 
proposal  by  their  Transvaal  kinsfolk.  The  desire  for  it  is 
believed  to  have  moved  some  of  those  who  joined  in  the 
Uitlander  movement  of  1895-96,  and  no  one  who  discusses 
the  future  of  the  country  can  help  adverting  to  it.  The 
advantages  are  obvious.  A  confederation  would  render 
ser\dees  similar  to  those  which  the  federal  system  has 
rendered  in  the  United  States  and  Canada,  and  which  are 
expected  by  the  colonial  statesmen  who  are  laboring  to 
establish  such  a  system  in  Australia.  I  heard  not  only 
railways  and  finance  (including  tariff  and  currency),  but 
also  commercial  law  and  native  questions,  suggested  as 
matters  fit  to  be  intrusted  to  a  federal  authority,  while  it 
seemed  to  be  thought  that  the  scope  of  such  an  authority 
should,  on  the  whole,  be  narrower  than  it  is  under  the 
Canadian  Constitution,  or  under  the  United  States  Con- 


EEFLECTIONS  AND  FORECASTS 


491 


stitution  as  amended  and  interpreted  by  the  courts.  The 
love  of  local  independence  is  strong  in  South  Africa,  but 
might  be  deferred  to  and  appeased,  as  is  being  done  in 
Aiistralia,  by  appropriate  constitutional  provisions.  So 
far,  no  fatal  obstacle  stands  in  the  way ;  but  a  difficulty 
has  been  thought  to  arise  from  the  fact  that  whereas  Cape 
Colony,  Natal,  and  the  other  British  territories  are  part  of 
the  dominions  of  the  British  crown,  the  Orange  Free  State 
is  an  independent  republic,  and  the  Transvaal  may  be  so 
when  federation  becomes  a  practical  issue.  "  Can  a  federal 
tie,"  it  is  asked,  "  bind  into  one  body  communities  some  of 
which  are  republics,  while  others,  though  practically  self- 
governing,  are  legally  parts  of  a  monarchy  ? " 

To  this  it  may  be  answered  that  there  have  been  in- 
stances of  such  confederations.  In  the  Germanic  Confed- 
eration, which  lasted  from  1815  till  1866,  there  were  four 
free  republics,  as  well  as  many  monarchies,  some  large, 
some  smaU.  The  Swiss  Confederation  (as  reestablished 
after  the  Napoleonic  wars)  used  to  contain,  in  the  canton 
of  Neuchatel,  a  member  whose  sovereign  was  the  King 
of  Prussia.  And  as  it  is  not  historically  essential  to 
the  conception  of  a  federal  state  that  aU  its  constituent 
communities  should  have  the  same  form  of  internal  gov- 
ernment, so  practically  it  would  be  possible,  though  not 
very  easy,  to  devise  a  scheme  which  should  recognize  the 
freedom  of  each  member  to  give  itself  the  kind  of  constitu- 
tion it  desired.  An  executive  head,  like  the  President  of 
the  United  States  or  the  Governor-General  of  Canada,  is  not 
essential  to  a  federal  system.  The  name  "  confederation" 
is  a  wide  name,  and  the  things  essential  to  it  may  be  secured 
in  a  great  variety  of  ways.  The  foreign  policy  of  a  South 
African  Confederation  is  perhaps  the  only  point  in  which 
any  question  could  arise  that  would  involve  considerations 


492  IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


affecting  the  international  status  of  the  members  of  the 
confederation ;  and  as  to  this,  it  must  be  remembered  that 
the  Orange  Free  State— and  the  same  remark  Avould  apply 
virtually  to  the  Transvaal  also— cannot  come  into  direct 
contact  with  any  foreign  power,  because  neither  has  any 
access  to  the  sea,  or  touches  any  non-British  territory  ex- 
cept that  of  Portugal. 

Another  remark  occurs  in  this  connection.  The  senti- 
ment of  national  independence  which  the  people  of  the 
Free  State  cherish,  and  which  may  probably  be  found  m 
the  Transvaal  even  when  that  state  has  passed  from  a 
Boer  into  an  Anglo-Dutch  republic,  is  capable  of  being 
greatly  modified  by  a  better  comprehension  of  the  ample 
freedom  which  the  self-governing  colonies  of  Britaia  en- 
joy. The  non-British  world  is  under  some  misconception 
in  this  matter,  and  does  not  understand  that  these  colonies 
are  practically  democratic  republics,  though  under  the 
protection  and  dignified  by  the  traditions  of  an  ancient 
and  famous  monarchy.  Xor  has  it  been  fully  realized  that 
the  substantial  advantages  of  the  connection  are  rather 
with  the  colonies  than  with  the  mother  country.  The 
mother  country  profits,  perhaps  to  some  extent— though 
this  is  doubtful— in  respect  of  trade,  but  chiefly  in  the 
sentiment  of  pride  and  the  consciousness  of  a  great  mis- 
sion in  the  world  which  the  possession  of  these  vast  terri- 
tories, scattered  over  the  oceans,  naturally  and  properly 
inspires.  The  colonies,  on  the  other  hand,  have  not  only 
some  economic  advantages  in  the  better  financial  credit 
they  enjoy,  but  have  the  benefit  of  the  British  diplomatic 
and  consular  service  all  over  the  world  and  of  the  status  of 
British  citizens  in  every  foreign  countiy.  It  is  also  a 
poHtical  convenience  to  them  to  be  reheved,  by  the  presence 
of  the  governor  whom  the  mother  coimtry  sends  out  as 


REFLECTIONS  AND  FORECASTS  493 


an  executive  figurehead  of  their  cabinet  system,  from  the 
necessity  of  electing  an  executive  chief,  a  convenience  which 
those  who  know  the  trouble  occasioned  by  presidential 
elections  in  the  United  States  can  best  appreciate.  And, 
above  all,  the  British  colonies  have  the  navy  of  Britain  to 
defend  them  against  molestation  by  any  foreign  power. 
It  may  be  said  that  they  have  also  the  risk  of  being  ia- 
volved  in  any  war  into  which  Britain  may  enter.  This  risk 
has,  however,  never  become  a  reality ;  for  during  the  past 
eighty  years  no  colony  has  ever  been  even  threatened  with 
attack  by  a  foreign  state,  while  during  all  that  time  the 
colonies  have  been  relieved  from  the  cost  and  trouble  of 
maintaining  the  naval  and  military  armaments  which  are 
needed  to  insure  their  safety.  Thus,  even  leaving  sentiment 
aside,  the  balance  of  material  advantage  to  the  colonies  is 
great  and  real ;  while  their  self-government  is  complete,  for 
the  mother  country  never  interferes  with  any  colonial  con- 
cern, unless  in  the  rare  cases  when  the  general  relations 
and  interests  of  the  whole  empire  may  be  affected.  When 
these  facts  have  been  fully  realized  in  the  Free  State 
and  the  Transvaal,  it  may  well  be  that  those  states  will  be 
ready  to  enter  a  confederation  of  which  the  British  mon- 
archy would  be,  as  in  Canada  and  (probably  before  long) 
in  Australia,  the  protecting  suzerain ;  for  there  would  be 
in  that  suzerainty  no  real  infringement  of  the  indepen- 
dence which  the  Free  State  has  so  happily  enjoyed.  It  is 
premature  to  speculate  now  on  the  best  form  which  a 
scheme  for  South  African  confederation  may  take.  All 
that  need  here  be  pointed  out  is  that  the  obstacles  now 
perceived  are  not  insurmountable  obstacles,  but  such  as 
may  be  overcome  by  a  fuller  knowledge  of  the  conditions 
of  the  problem,  and  by  reasonable  concessions  on  the  part  of 
South  African  statesmen  in  the  different  states  concerned. 


494 


IMPRESSIONS  OF  SOUTH  AFRICA 


These  observations  are  made  on  the  assumption  that  the 
South  African  colonies  will  desire  to  maintain  their  politi- 
cal connection  with  the  mother  country.  It  is  an  assump- 
tion which  may  safely  be  made,  for  nowhere  in  the  British 
empire  is  the  attachment  to  Britain  more  sincere.  Strong 
as  this  feeling  is  in  Canada  and  in  Australasia,  it  is  fully 
as  strong  in  South  Africa.  The  English  there  are  more 
English  than  are  even  the  people  of  those  other  colonies. 
The  colonial  Dutch,  warm  as  is  their  Africander  patriot- 
ism, have  never  been  hostile  to  the  British  crown.  And 
both  English  and  Dutch  feel  how  essential  to  them,  placed 
as  they  are,  is  the  protection  of  a  great  naval  power.  They 
have  as  near  neighbors  in  the  South  Atlantic  and  Indian 
oceans  two  great  European  Powers  bent  on  colonial  ex- 
pansion, and  to  either  of  whom,  even  apart  from  colonial 
expansion,  such  a  position  as  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope 
offers  would  be  invaluable.  Both  the  mother  country, 
therefore,  and  her  South  African  children,  have  every 
motive  for  cleaving  to  one  another,  and,  so  far  as  our  eyes 
can  pierce  the  mists  of  the  future,  no  reason  can  be  dis- 
cerned why  they  should  not  continue  so  to  cleave.  The 
peoples  of  both  countries  are  altogether  friendly  to  one 
another.  But  much  will  depend  on  the  knowledge,  the 
prudence,  the  patience,  the  quiet  and  unobtrusive  tact,  of 
the  home  government. 

While  Britain  continues  to  be  a  great  naval  power,  the 
maintenance  of  her  connection  with  South  Africa  will  in- 
sure the  external  peace  of  that  country,  which,  fortunately 
for  herself,  lies  far  away  in  the  southern  seas,  with  no  laud 
frontiers  which  she  is  called  on  to  defend.  She  may  not 
grow  to  be  herself  a  populous  and  powerful  state,  like  the 
Canadian  or  the  Australian  confederations  of  the  future, 
for  her  climatic  conditions  are  less  favorable  to  the  in- 


REFLECTIONS  AND  FORECASTS 


495 


crease  of  the  white  race ;  but  her  people  may,  if  she  can 
deal  wisely  with  the  problems  which  the  existence  of  a  large 
native  population  raises,  become  a  happy  and  prosperous 
nation.  They  are  exempt  from  some  of  the  dangers  which 
threaten  the  industrial  communities  of  Europe  and  North 
America.  The  land  they  dwell  in  is  favored  by  nature, 
and  inspires  a  deep  love  in  its  children.  The  stock  they 
spring  from  is  strong  and  sound ;  and  they  have  carried 
with  them  to  their  new  home  the  best  traditions  of  Teu- 
tonic freedom  and  self-government. 


INDEX 


Africander,  106. 
Africander  Bond,  416. 
Agricultural  products,  450. 
Americana  in  the  Transvaal,  430. 
Animals,  wild,  16-22,  90,  271. 
Antelopes,  17,  20. 
Antiquities,  237,  255-258. 
Ants,  262. 

Australian  trees,  29,  30. 

Bamangwato,  91,  214. 
Basutoland,  3,  51,  331-348. 
Basutos,  85,  132,  147,  350-356. 
Bechuanaland,  40,  170,  208,  211-220. 
Bechuanas,  87,  219. 
Beira,  184,  278. 
C6r6&  293. 

Bloemfontein,  131,  134,  325. 

Boers,  56,  113,  118,  120,  124,  127-129,  154, 

158, 169,  302,  420,  435,  443,  473. 
Brand,  Sir  John,  328. 
British  government,  110,  112,  123,  130, 

133,  139, 143,  160, 163,  167,  170,  477-482. 
British  South  Africa  Company,  175,  226, 

289,  439. 

British  South  Africa  Company's  terri- 
tory, 40,  279-289. 
Bulawayo,  223. 
Burgers  (President),  157. 
Bushmen,  85,  107,  108,  343. 

Caledon  Kiver,  347,  349. 

Cape  Colony  (physical  aspects),  32, 137. 

Cape  of  Good  Hope,  197. 

Cape  Town,  24,  50,  195. 

Cathcart,  Sir  George,  347. 

Cetewayo,  85,  153,  158. 

Chimoyo,  267. 

Churches,  404,  412. 

Climate,  6,  7,  11, 12,  35,  46,  241,  28L 

Coaches,  189. 

Colley,  General  Sir  George,  163,  303. 
Colonial  policy,  review  of,  478-482. 
Colonies  of  Britain,  492. 
Color  in  South  African  landscapes,  63, 
261. 

Color  question,  358,  413,  484. 


Confederation  (of  South  Africa),  151,  490. 
Constitution,  of  Natal,  295 ;  of  Orange 

Free  State,  327 ;  of  Cape  Colony,  407- 

409  ;  of  Transvaal,  424,  425. 
Convention  of  London,  171. 
Crocodile,  19,  211,  275. 
Crown  colonies,  360. 
Customs  Union,  489. 

Damaraland,  36,  175. 
Delagoa  Bay,  119, 150,  184,  291,  418. 
DModhlo,  69-73,  234,  237. 
Diamond-mines,  203-205,  454. 
Diaz,  Bartholomew,  99. 
Dingaan,  84, 117, 121. 
Dingiswayo,  83. 
Dongas,  190,  267. 

Drakensberg    or    Quatblamha  Moun- 
tains, 3. 
Durban,  121,  292. 

Dutch,  46,  102,  111,  143,  167,  366,  394. 
Dutch  East  India  Company,  104,  108, 
109. 

Education,  402. 
Elandsfonteln,  307. 
Elephant,  18. 

Fever,  12-14,  270. 

Flora,  of  South  Africa,  23-25  ;  of  Maluti 

Mountains,  339. 
Fontesvilla,  272. 
Forests  25 

Frere,  Sir  Bartle,  153, 166,  349. 

Gama,  Vasco  da,  99,  291. 
Geology,  5. 

German  Southwest  Africa,  36,  174. 
Germans,  105,  112,  138. 
Ghost-worship,  90,  257,  355,  392. 
Gold-mines,  263,  281,  308-314,  429,  455, 
486. 

Grass-flres,  238. 
Griquas,  130,  148. 
Grondwet,  156,  371,  424,  426. 
Gungunhana,  85,  386. 
Gwelo,  240. 


497 


498 


INDEX 


Health,  10-15. 
Heat,  6,  10. 
Heaths,  24,  339. 
Hippopotamus,  19,  276. 
Hollanders,  427,  435. 
Horses,  219,  259,  338. 
Hottentots,  106,  114, 115. 
Huguenot  immigrants,  104. 

Immigration,  464. 
Indians,  249,  293,  298,  363. 
Inyanga,  80,  264. 

Johannesburg,  180,  315-319,  423,  439. 

Kafli-s,  86-97,  108,  113,  138,  144,  255,  375, 

380-383,  476,  483. 
Kalahari  Desert,  21, 175. 
Karroo,  5,  24,  33,  200. 
Khama,  170,  216-218,  368. 
Kunberley,  148,  201-207. 
Kruger,  S.  J.  P.,  118,  159,  163,  169,  171, 

179,  321,  427,  438. 

Laing's  Nek,  164,  302. 
Language,  397. 

Laws  relating  to  natives,  369-372. 
Leopard,  18. 
Lerothodi,  335,  351. 
Limpopo  River,  8,  211. 
Lion,  17,  220. 

Livingstone,  David,  47,  157. 
Lo  Bengula,  85,  175,  177,  223. 
Locusts,  237,  266,  270. 
Lovedale,  388. 
Luderitz,  174. 

Machacha,  338,  340,  341. 

Mafeking,  208. 

Majuba  Hill,  164,  302,  303. 

Makalanga  or  Makalaka,  82,  226, 246,  287. 

Maluti  Mountains,  332,  337. 

Mangwe  Pass,  220. 

Manicaland,  282. 

Manufactures,  459. 

Mashonaland,  40,  55,  177,  227,  251,  280. 
Massikessi,  266. 

Matabili,  84,  119,  178,  217,  224,  234,  247. 
Matabililand,  40,  55,  280. 
Matoppo  HiUs,  220,  235. 
Missionaries,  114,  126,  140,  347,  364,  386- 
392. 

Molimo  or  Mlimo,  91,  93. 
Monomotapa,  82. 
Montsloa,  209. 
Morija,  334. 

Moshesh,  125,  131,  147,  346. 
Mosilikatze,  119,  217,  223,  386. 
Mtali,  261. 

Murrain  among  cattle,  230,  377. 
Mzila,  85,  265. 

Namaqualand,  36,  175. 

Natal,  35,  121,  123,  153,  295-300. 

National  Union,  428,  437. 


Native  character,  364,  387. 
Native  political  rights,  298,  324,  372. 
Native  labor,  229,  231,  314,  356.  362,  369, 
460. 

Nature,  influence  of,  on  South  African 

history,  43. 
Notwani  River,  211. 

Oak,  30. 

Orange  Free  State,  37,  135,  147,  148,  167, 

323-331,  348,  436,  489. 
Orange  River,  8,  34. 
Orange  River  Sovereignty,  131,  133. 
Ostrich,  20,  138. 
Oudzi  River,  260. 
Ox-wagon,  186-188,  213,  239. 

Palapshwye,  214,  218. 

Panda,  84,  122. 

Parties  (political),  415. 

Pasturage,  452. 

Phillips,  Lionel,  432. 

Physical  features,  2-5,  32-41,  449,  470. 

Pietermaritzburg,  294,  300. 

Pitso,  349,  352. 

Plateau,  great  interior,  3-5,  37,  39,  47, 
118,  480. 

Politics,  295  (Natal),  326  (Orange  Free 

State),  409-415  (British  colonies). 
Polygamy,  389. 

Population,  111,  139 ;  character  of,  410 ; 

increase  of,  453,  467. 
Portuguese,  44,  99-104,  176,  266,  292. 
Portuguese  territories,  37,  266. 
Pretoria,  180,  319. 
Pretorius,  Andries,  132. 
Pretorius,  M.  W.,  156,  163. 
Protectionists,  411,  461. 
Pungwe  River,  272-276. 

Quathlamba  mountain-range,  3,  34,  39, 
51,  301. 

Railways,  138,  184-186,  191,  269,  278. 
Rainfall,  6,  7,  29,  34. 
Religion  of  the  Kafirs,  89-92,  385. 
Resources  of  South  Africa,  449-459. 
Responsible  government,  142,  407,  418. 
Rhinoceros,  19. 

Rhodes,  CecU,  176,  181,  202,  417,  433. 
Rivers,  7-9. 

Salisbury,  Fort,  248, 249. 

Sand  River  convention,  133. 

Scenery,  aspects  of,  49-54,  221,  236,  243, 

253,  259,  268,  275,  340. 
Selous.  F.  C,  229. 
Shepstone,  Sir  T.,  158. 
Silver-tree,  26,  196. 
Slavery,  88,  104,  114,  362. 
Snakes,  20. 

Social  characteristics,  394-406. 
Sofala,  99,  277. 

South  African  Republic    See  Trams- 

VAAL. 


INDEX 


499 


Southern  States  of  America,  374,  378, 113, 
484. 

Steamer  communicatiODS,  183,  193. 
SteUenbosch,  30,  104,  198. 
Stores,  239,  254. 
Swazis,  84,  172. 

Thaba  Bosiyo,  126,  343-346. 
Thaba  "Ntshu,  119,  332. 
Tongas,  92,  173. 
Trade  399 

Transvaal,  39,  54,  133,  136,  155,  166,  424, 

486. 

Traveling,  183,  331. 
Trees,  25-30,  212,  253. 
Trek,  tlie  Great,  116. 
Tsetse-fiy,  233,  269. 


Tshaka,  83,  84,  86,  95,  116,  125,  341. 

Uitlanders,  422,  428,  430,  487. 

Vaal  River,  207. 
Vandals,  103. 
Victoria,  Fort,  242. 
Volksraad,  425. 

Walflsh  Bay,  36,  174. 
Witchcraft,  93. 

Witwatersrand,  307-309,  398,  457. 

Zambesi,  41,  100,  101,  120,  175,  178,  233. 
Zimbabwye,  244. 
ZulvQand,  35,  154,  169,  296. 
Zulus,  83,  87,  117,  121,  163. 


1 


Date  Due 


Mr  1  0  .V 

